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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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TELEGRAPHIC TALES 



AND 



TELEGRAPHIC HISTORY. 



A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH— ITS 



USES, EXTENT AND OUTGROWTHS. 






By W. J. JOHNSTON, 

Editor of "The Operator." 

ISJ.I7M 



> WASHA^J 



W. J. JOHEWSTON, Publisher, 
No. 9 Murray Street. 



f£ 



j£7 

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Copyright, 

W. J. JOHNSTON, 

1880. 



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PREFACE. 



Some time ago the subscriber published a number of 
anecdotes relating to telegraphy, which were received 
with an unexpected degree of favor. They were so 
extensively copied in the newspapers as to set him 
thinking that the preparation of such a book as this 
would please the reading public, as well as members of 
the telegraphic profession. Hence the undertaking 
herewith put on the book market as a candidate for 
popular favor. No more is claimed for it than that it 
presents, in a methodized and compact form, a compre- 
hensive summary of such telegraphic information as is 
likely to be valued by the general public, and of use to 
the operator because of the convenient method of its 
presentation — varied, as is desirable, with lighter matter. 
Very considerable labor has been expended upon it, 
in the hope and belief that it will occupy an unique 
place among those books which instruct without being 
tedious and entertain wholesomely. Should this expec- 
tation be verified, the subscriber will be justified in his 
confidence that the reading public and the profession 
will in a new instance show their appreciation of that 



IV PREFACE. 

sort of literary work which constructs miscellaneous 
materials into an edifice not wanting, as he trusts, in 
symmetry and beauty. The well-read operator may find 
individual passages herein which he has met with before; 
but it is believed that he will be the readiest to appre- 
ciate the judgment and industry which have put them 
exactly in their proper places as portions of a book. 

The subscriber's modesty would lead him to claim 
even less than he does for this his latest publication, had 
he been solely engaged in its production. He will add 
no more than his hearty acknowledgments of the valu- 
able assistance rendered him by Mr. Henry G. Taylor, 
a New York journalist whose experience and graceful 
ease of expression give him distinction under the 
severe test of metropolitan competition. 

W. J. Johnston. 



CONTENTS. 



PRE-ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS 7 

Signaling among the ancients — Telephonic system of the 
African negroes— Signaling by sound in Montenegro— Fire commu 
nication in war and otherwise— Dr. Hooke's telegraph— The sema- 
phore— Semaphoric blunder and its result— The word "telegraph"— 
Prediction quoted by Addison. 

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH— ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 14 
First lightning-rod man— Frictional electricity discovered— The 
Leyden jar— Experiments to Franklin's time— His famous kite ex- 
periment—Robert Stephenson's boyish imitation— Lomond's elec- 
tric signals — Lesage's invention of electric telegraph, using 
twenty-four wires— Reiser's thirty-six wire telegraph— Succeeding 
experiments to Morse and subsequently to present time. 

INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN THE U. S 29 

First American line— Apathy of scientists, press and public— Why 
the Herald refused to encourage the telegraph— Cornell and Morse 
— First apparatus— Interesting relic— First week of telegraph— Slen- 
der returns— Humors of early-day telegraphy— Countryman, tur- 
keys and telegraph— Mr. Stearns and obstreperous church bell — 
Honor to whom honor is due — Ronalds — Morse— Henry— Vail— 
Claim for laborers—" Be jabers, who dug the post holes ? " 

A CHAPTER ABOUT OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS 50 

The operators' view of human nature— Their faithfulness— Their 
literature— Their difficulties and trials— Epileptic telegrapher- 
Armless operator— Deaf operator receiving by sound— The a light- 
ning striker's " blunder and a case of jealousy— Recognizing by 
touch— Love over the wire — Love disappointment in humorous 
verse— First marriage by telegraph— Absconding operator caught 
by novice— Wonderful speed in telegraphing— Messenger service — 
District telegraph boys and the various duties they perform — 
Anecdotes of them — Uniformed messenger mistaken for police- 
man. 

THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR 70 

Earliest military signaling — Introduction of field telegraphy- 
Field telegraphy described— Dangers to apparatus— Firing guns by 
electricity— Telegraph in civil war— Its great value— What General 
Sherman said of it— Origin of U. S. Military Telegraph— Cost of ser- 
vice during war — Duties of cipher operators— Official acknowl- 
edgment of their services— Anecdotes of military operators' ready 
wit, heroic courage and nervousness— Funny war story— Another 
— Military operators' poor quarters— A provident telegrapher — 
Richmond taken— Receipt of the great news— Lincoln's assassina- 
tion—Grand feat of Prussian soldier, and heroism of French fe- 
male operator. 

CABLE TELEGRAPHS 95 

General— The Atlantic cable — First suggestion of ft — Its origin— Or- 
ganization of company— Laying cable— The Great Eastern— Dis- 
couragements— First message— Suggestor wittily silenced by Mr. 
Field— Cost of first Atlantic cable— Recent improvements in cable 
laying— Mr. Field's services— Cable operators— Cable codes— A spec- 
imen—Its interpretation. 

HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH 107 

Economical Irishman— Timid old lady— Apprehensive Texan- 
Witty, incongruous and rhyming telegrams— A "killing " blunder 
— The "additional wurred "—A furious message— Satchel by tele- 
graph— Snubbing a king— A proper old lady— Little "Johnny Rus- 
sell "—Peter to Margaret Flagarty— He couldn't be fooled—" She 
writes like a man "—Model (?) Maine man— Hollow and " hello "— 

Fooling savages— "Onnateral flxins "—Chicago and Witty 

illustration — Electrifying loaf ers — Shocking the negroes— Blind- 
folding the " masheen "—A crammer. 



VI CONTENTS. 



TELEGRAPHIC " BULLS " , 123 

A fatal " bull "—Matrimony killed by a " bull "—Instances of oper- 
ators' " bulls "—A lord's mistake— John Brown and Seaton Bros.— 
Ale or oil— Too much coffee— Blessings in disguise — A profitable mis- 
take—A military "bull" that was not all a " bull " — Senders' 
"bulls"— Habit and halibut—" Bulls " from bad spelling— A fishy 
story— Tragic " bull "—Injustice to operators. 

LIGHTNING FREAKS AND TRAGEDIES 138 

Deaths from lightning— Effects in different countries— A triple tra- 
gedy—Curious freaks of lightning— Some wonderful instances- 
Lightning in telegraph offices— Operators killed. 

SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH 143 

Abuse of General McClellan's name— A modern " St. John "—Big 
swindle in Toledo—" Spiritualistic " swindling— Rappers' tricks— 
Their magnets— How to make them— Sir Charles Wheatstone's ex- 
periments— Two good stories of sharp practice by operators— Tam- 
pering with cipher message— The biters bit— Great bank swindle- 
Barb's telegraphic trap for burglars. 

THE TELEGRAPH AN UNIVERSAL INSTITUTION 160 

A well-traveled message— Spanish peasants and telegraph— Tele- 
graph in Morocco— China— India— The East in general— Japan— In 
Africa. 

THE WEATHER REPORTS 168 

Death of General Meyer— His account of storm signal system— Its 
value to commerce and agriculture— The New York station— Cipher 
reports of weather— Difficulties of signal service— Early opposition 
—Origin of weather reports in the United States— Smithsonian 
Institution— Prof essor Henry. 

THE RAILROAD TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM 179 

Originated in England— First instance of train dispatching in this 
country— System at Grand Central depot— Moving trains by tele- 
graphic orders— Official instructions— Train dispatchers and oper- 
ators — Their responsibility — Thrilling incident — Operator who 
"forgot "—Noble operator— Latest inventions in railroad signaling 
—The train telegraph — No more screaming engines— Supplying 
locomotives with water by electricity — Fun on the railroad- 
Waking the Pullman porter— Operators' anti-suporific. 

ELECTRICITY AND LIFE 202 

General remarks— Electric girl of La Perriere— Electrical lady of 
Nevada City— Electricity on dinner table— Feeling pulse by tele- 
graph—Development of growth by electricity— Uses in surgery and 
dentistry— Electricity as a healer— An " anti-fat " story. 

OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH 218 

The electric light— Edison's description— The light at Niagara- 
Experiments in San Francisco— Proposed illumination of Holyoke 
— Use in stores, stear 'lips, and in war— The telephone— How con- 
structed—The Germuxx name for it— Its invention— Telephone ser- 
vice meter— Transmitting sermons by telephone— First instance — 
Mr. Beecher's— The telephone in Jersey City law courts— Communi- 
cating between ships— Use in wooing— In military operations — 
Music— Humors of the telephone— The singing telephone— Yarn 
from Pine Bluff— Joke on reporters— One for Dawdles— Marriage 
by telephone— Telegraphing by light— The photophone— Electrical 
egg hatching and seed germination— Theatrical thunder— Tooth- 
ache cured by electricity— Gas lighting and bell ringing by same 
means— Electricity as an umbrella— In taming horses— In connec- 
tion with Moody and Sankey 's meetings— Telegraphing by electrical 
air currents— Maps by telegraph— Magnetic magic writing— Elec- 
tric driving power— Electricity in managing refractory horses- 
Engraving by electricity— Diagrams of targets over the wire — 
Electric combs and brushes— New uses for the sun's rays— The 
ocean a source of electricity— Suggested use of electricity in ex- 
ecuting criminals— Slaughtering cattle and killing whales by 
electricity— Electric clocks that require no winding— Telegraph- 
ing by steam at sea— Electricity in steam— The Edison electric 
locomotive — Description of it — Electricity aiding weary cash 
girls— Conclusion. 



TELEGRAPHIC TALES 

AND 

Telegraphic H istory. 



PRE-ELECTRIO TELEGRAPHS. 

"When signaling as a mode of communication was 
first adopted, no amount of research can ascertain. We 
find it difficult to conceive of a time when it was not 
convenient, if not necessary, and when human ingenuity 
was incapable of providing it. 

One of the earliest recorded systems of telegraphy for 
signaling over long distances originated among the Afri- 
can negroes, and has been practiced from time imme- 
morial. The means used are telephonic, the signals 
being read by sound, and not by the eye. 

The "elliembic," as the instrument used is termed, 
is still in existence, and used in the Cameroons Coun- 
try, on the west coast of Africa. By the sounds pro- 
duced on striking it, the natives carry on conversation 
with great rapidity, and at several miles distance. The 
noises are made to produce a perfect and distinct lan- 
guage, as intelligible to the operator as that uttered by 
the human voice. 

It is hardly necessary to add that the existence of 
this contrivance, capable of such useful effects, implies 
evolution, probably carried on through a series of ages, 



8 PRE-ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 

from devices which, we may presume, originated in the 
very infancy of human society. 

One of these still prevails in Montenegro, where, 
when a shepherd in the mountains finds himself in want 
of society, he sends out at random a peculiar kind of 
yell, with a view of attracting the attention of any 
one similarly situated, who may chance to be within 
hearing upon some other mountain side, and may also 
feel a desire for conversation. It is well known at what 
a great distance shrill sounds may be distinctly heard 
in the mountainous regions. The unseen friend, whose 
ears have caught the sound, responds in the same way, 
and then begins a dialogue about their flocks and herds, 
or any other country gossip ; and should there chance 
to be news of public interest, such as of any important 
person or foreigner passing that way, the receiver of 
the intelligence shouts it out in the open air for the 
benefit of the mountain nearest to him, and so it passes 
from one to another through a considerable part of the 
country. 

In saying that signaling by sound probably antici- 
pated all other methods of telegraphing, we are simply 
saying that the most natural and obvious mode of com- 
munication, namely, that by means of the voice, was the 
first made of service in the rapid transmission of intelli- 
gence over long distances. 

The employment of objects to be seen was a later 
expression of human ingenuity, intended to better an- 
swer the demand for easy and far-reaching communica- 
tion. And what better for this purpose than fire — a 
ready servant and the most available for its conspicu- 



PRE-ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. tf 

ousness ; real even in the glare of day, and made in- 
tense by surrounding darkness during the night ? 

Accordingly, we find records of the use of fire-signal- 
ing during the Greek and Roman wars; and in the 
writings of Polybius, about two hundred and sixty years 
before Christ, there is an account of a signal corps at- 
tached to the military. Down through the ages " fire- 
swingers " were employed as signal men. 

It is related that at the siege of Vienna, John Smith, 
the explorer of Virginia, used the plan of Polybius with 
effect, to arrange with the besieged forces for a sortie, 
he having learned it from the Turks. 

The quaint old English works of 1650, or thereabouts, 
tell of " a marvelous device by which those who know 
may converse so far as light may be known from dark- 
ness." As a matter of course, every reader is acquaint- 
ed with the modern use of the fiery cross, and certainly 
with the telegraphic use of fireworks. 

In 1684 Dr. Hooke proposed a kind of mechanical 
telegraph, which, however, was not carried into opera- 
tion. He prepared as many different shaped figures in 
wood, as, for example, squares, triangles, circles, etc., 
as there are letters in the alphabet. He exhibited them 
successively in the required order, from behind a screen, 
and proposed that torches or other lights, combined in 
different arrangements, should supply their place at 
night. Twenty years later Amontous, of Paris, ex- 
hibited some experiments before the royal family of 
France and the members of the Academy of Science, 
showing the practicability of the system. 

Semaphoric signaling contrivances were in use in 



10 PRE-ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 

various countries down to within a half century of the 
present year (1880). That employed by the English Ad- 
miralty was not abolished until the end of the year 1847. 

In contrast with the convenience of the electric tele- 
graph it was cumbrous and costly. The expense of 
working and mounting the line from London to Ports- 
mouth was three thousand three hundred pounds ($16,- 
500) per annum. 

Though of great service to the government, it was, 
of course, only available in clear weather. Vexatious 
interruptions continually took place, and droll accidents 
occasionally resulted from the sudden cessation of com- 
munication, from a fog, or similar cause, during the 
transmission of a message. 

When, for example, the British army was righting 
under Wellington in Spain, news was anxiously expected 
from that great commander through the Admiralty sig- 
nals. The public was in a feverish excitement, when 
one day the disastrous message was received : " Well- 
ington defeated." 

The funds were violently agitated, the people and the 
government were bewildered, and terrible rumors of 
enormous slaughter and great loss of guns, colors, and 
ammunition were heard on all sides. It turned out, 
however, that, just as the word " defeated " had been 
deciphered at some part of the line, a sudden mist had 
come on and cut off the remainder of the message. 
When this inopportune visitor had passed away, the 
public mind was instantly relieved with the news that 
the message was not "Wellington defeated," but 
" Wellington defeated the French" 



PRE-ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 11 

Lest readers should take exception to the use of the 
word "telegraph," with reference to signaling before 
the introduction of the electric telegraph, it is interest- 
ing to know that in an article published in "Nicholson's 
Journal of Philosophy " for October, 1798, and entitled, 
" An Essay on the Art of Conveying Secret and Swift 
Intelligence," by Richard Lovell Edgeworth, the word 
" telegraph " is frequently used, and in such a way as 
to show that it was then a common current term. The 
following extract from the paper shows what could even 
then be done in the way of instantaneous transmission 
of intelligence : "In September, 1796, the lord lieuten- 
ant ordered me to prepare telegraphs for an experiment 
before his excellency. In consequence I constructed 
four new telegraphs. I had found that the large ma- 
chines, thirty feet high, with which my sons talked, in 
September, 1794, across the Channel, between Ireland 
and Scotland, were liable to accidents in stormy weather, 
etc." 

In the grand march of human progress all previous 
methods of distant communication were surpassed in 
general availability by the electric telegraph, which, 
associated with locomotion by the agency of steam, in- 
troduced a new era into the history of civilization. 

Very curiously, Addison, in No. 241 of the Spectator, 
December 6th, 1711, quoting from a mediaeval writer of 
monkish Latin, realizes the instrument used for tele- 
graphic purposes in this nineteenth century. 

He says : 

"Strada, in one of his Prolusions, gives an account 
of a chimerical correspondence between two friends, by 



12 PRE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 

the help of a certain loadstone, which had such virtue 
in it, that if it touched two several needles, when one of 
the needles so touched began to move, the other, though 
at never so great a distance, moved at the same time 
and in the same manner. He tells us that the two 
friends, being each of them possessed of one of these 
needles, made a kind of dial plate, inscribing it with the 
four-and-twenty letters, in the same manner as the 
hours of the day are marked upon the ordinary dial- 
plate. They then fixed one of the needles on each of 
these plates in such a manner that it could be moved 
round without impediment so as to touch any of the 
four-and-twenty letters. Upon their separating from 
one another into distant countries, they agreed to 
withdraw themselves punctually into their closets at a 
certain hour of the day, and to converse with one an- 
other by means of this invention. Accordingly, when 
they were some hundred miles asunder, each of them 
shut himself up in his closet at the time appointed, and 
immediately cast his eye upon his dial-plate. If he had 
a mind to write anything to his friend, he directed his 
needle to every letter that formed the words which he 
had occasion for, making a little pause at the end of 
every word or sentence, to avoid confusion. The friend, 
in the meanwhile, saw his own sympathetic needle mov- 
ing of itself to every letter which that of his corres- 
pondent pointed at. By this means they talked to- 
gether across a whole continent, and conveyed their 
thoughts to one another in an instant over cities or 
mountains, seas or deserts. ***** jf ever 
this invention should be revived or put into practice, I 
would propose that upon the lovers' dial-plate there 
should be written not only the four-and-twenty letters, 
but several entire words which have always a place in 
passionate epistles, as ' Flames, Darts, Die, Languish, 
Absence, Cupid, Heart, Eyes, Hang, Drown, and the 
like.' This would very much abridge the lover's pains 



PRE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 13 

in this way of writing a letter, as it would enable him 
to express the most useful and significant words with a 
single touch of the needle." 

We must now take our readers from the elegant 
periods of Addison into an account of the successive 
experiments and discoveries which led up to the in- 
vention of the electric telegraph, and afterward to its 
remarkable perfection as we now know it. 



14 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH : 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH— ITS BEGINNING 
AND DEVELOPMENT. 

" Coming events," says a time-honored maxim, " cast 
their shadows before." Long ere the electric telegraph 
became an "institution," its feasibility had been antici- 
pated by scientific minds, with greater or less clearness. 
There is nothing more interesting in the history of ex- 
periment than the successive results of the attempt to 
dominate the electric fluid. The imagination is awed 
by the sublimity of human endeavor, which, in their 
turn, overcomes one natural force after another. Water, 
air, fire, steam, lightning, have had to succumb to the 
potent spirit of man, "for whom all things were made;" 
and the future will, doubtless, see still stronger in- 
stances than the past, of the triumph which intellect 
and courage gain in the struggle with nature. Proba- 
bly never is this glorious victory due to one man. The 
electric telegraph is no exception to the general rule. 
As Robert Sabine says: "It grew up little by little, each 
inventor adding his little to advance it toward perfec- 
tion." 

before 1794. 

Our familiar friend the lightning rod was an appli- 
ance of the earliest civilization, namely, that of the an- 
cient Egyptians. These people, alas! had experiences 
of the persistency of the brazen-cheeked hghtning-rod 
man, who fitly represented the first and simplest pro- 
cess in the subjugation of the electric fluid. 



ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 15 

We are in the dark as to the history of man's rela- 
tions with this subtle agent from the last days of an- 
cient Egypt until about six hundred years before Christ, 
when Thales^jojjyri 1 e&z, discovered that the rubbing of 
amber (electron, in Greek) produced what is, perhaps 
somewhat clumsily, called frictional electricity. Two hun- 
dred years later, Plato attempted the first theory of elec- 
tricity. Ten years before the Christian era, Plutarchus is 
recorded as having described the electric phenomena 
observed in his time. Through a very long hiatus we 
arrive at the date 1690, A. D., when Otto Van Guericke, 
of Germany, made a friction electric machine. Thirty- 
eight years afterward, Etienne Grey, of England, dis- 
covered the difference between conductors and insula- 
tors; and, in the following year, he and another En- 
glishman, named Wheeler, succeeded in transmitting an 
electric shock through several hundred feet of wire. 
The Ley den jar was invented in 1745, by Musschen- 
brook, of Leyden, Holland. It may be described as a 
glass jar or bottle used to accumulate electricity. The 
jar is coated with tin foil within and without nearly to 
its top, and is surmounted by a brass knob for the pur- 
pose of charging it with electricity. 

We next turn to our own shores and the experiment 
of the illustrious Franklin, who gives the following ac- 
count of it, in a letter written by himself to Peter Col- 
linson, Esq., F. E. S., London, which probably contains 
about all that is definitely know in relation to the 
American philosopher's discovery of the analogy be- 
tween the electric spark and Ughtning. This had been 
previously conjectured. So early as 1708 Dr. Wall had 



16 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH: 



pointed out a resemblance between them. In 1735 
Grey, whom we mentioned just now, had stated that 
they differ only in degree ; and four years before Frank- 
lin's great experiment, the Abbe Nollet gave more sub- 
stantial reasons than had been adduced by Grey, for 
agreement with him. But to Franklin's letter, which is 
taken from a quarto volume published in London in 
1774, and entitled, " Experiments and Observations on 
Electricity, made at Philadelphia, in America, by Ben- 
jamin Franklin, LL. D. and F. K. S." 

FRANKLIN'S OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS EXPERIMENT WITH THE KITE. 

u As frequent mention is made in public papers from 
Europe of the success of the Philadelphia experiment 
for drawing the electric fire from clouds by means of 
pointed rods of iron erected on high buildings, etc., it 
may be agreeable to the curious to be informed that the 
same experiment has succeeded in Philadelphia, though 
made in a different and more easy manner, which is as 
follows : 

"Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the 
arms so long as to reach to the corners of a large thin 
silk handkerchief when extended , tie the corners of the 
handkerchief to the extremities of the cross, so you 
have the body of a kite, which being properly accomo- 
dated with a tail, loop and string, will rise in the air 
like those made of paper ; but this being of silk is bet- 
ter fitted to bear the wet and wind of a thundergust 
without tearing. To the top of the upright stick of the 
cross is to be fixed a very sharp pointed wire, rising a 
foot or more above the wood. To the end of the twine, 
next the hand, is to be tied a silk ribbon, and where the 
silk and twine join a key may be fastened. This kite is 
to be raised when a thundergust appears to be coming 



ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 17 

on, and the person who holds the string must standwith- 
in a door or window, or under some cover, so that the 
silk ribbon may not be wet, and care must be taken 
that the twine does not touch the frame of the door or 
window. As soon as any of the thunder clouds come 
over the kite, the pointed wire will draw the electric 
fire from them, and the kite, with all the twine will be 
electrified, and the loose filaments of the twine will stand 
out every way, and be attracted by an approaching fin- 
ger. And when the rain has wet the kite and twine, so 
that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find 
it stream out plentifully from the key on the approach 
of your knuckle At this key the phial (Ley den jar) 
may be charged ; and from the electric fire thus ob- 
tained spirits may be kindled, and all the other electric 
experiments be formed which are usually done by the 
help of a rubbed glass globe or tube, and thereby the 
sameness of the electric matter with that of lightning 
completely demonstrated. B. Franklin 

"Oct 19, 1752." 

Eight here is the proper place to record an amusing 
anecdote of Kobert Stephenson, who worthily bore the 
name which his father had made immortal, and exem- 
plified in his fondness as a boy for scientific experiments 
that "The child is father of the man." This young 
gentleman, we are told, was very fond of reducing his 
scientific reading to practice ; and after studying Frank- 
lin's description of the lightning experiment, he pro- 
ceeded to spend his store of Saturday pennies in pur- 
chasing about half a mile of copper wire. Having pre- 
pared his kite, he sent it up in the field opposite his 
father's door, and bringing the wire, insulated by means 
of a few feet of silk cord, over the backs of some of 
Farmer Wigham's cows, he soon had them skipping 
2 



18 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH : 

about the field in all directions, with their tails up. 
One day he had his kite flying at the cottage door as 
his father's galloway was hanging by the bridle to the 
paling, waiting for the master to mount. Bringing the 
end of the wire just over the pony's crupper, so smart 
an electric shock was given it that the brute was almost 
knocked down. At this juncture the father issued from 
the door, riding-whip in hand, and was witness to the 
scientific trick just played off upon his galloway "Ah! 
you mischievous scoundrel!" cried he to the boy, who 
ran off He inwardly chuckled with pride, nevertheless, 
at Robert's successful experiment. 

After Franklin's audacious and most notable experi- 
ment, the history of the electric telegraph hastens 
apace. We have but to record one more experiment, 
before arriving at the date usually given as the first in 
the long series which indicates the development of tele- 
graphs by electricity. This is 1787, when a French- 
man named Lomond succeeded in communicating sig- 
nals from one house to another by electroscopic action. 

It was in the year 1774 that George Louis Lesage, 
of Geneva, constructed a telegraph composed of twenty- 
four line wires, corresponding to the twenty- four letters 
of the alphabet, and by the use of frictional electricity 
and pith balls, succeeded in transmitting intelligible 
signals over the wires to a distance. The date men- 
tioned is accordingly the time when the electric tele- 
graph was invented, and Lesage was its inventor. 

M. Lomond's name occurs once more among the emi- 
nent men to whom we are indebted for improvements 
previous to the introduction of the present system of 



ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 19 

rapid communication between widely different places, 
to which all precedent systems were but toys in com- 
parison, although they were of great use in preparing 
the way for it. 

The following passage occurs in "Arthur Young's 
Travels in France," published in Dublin in 1793. The 
date of the letter from which the extract is taken is Oct. 
16th, 1787: "In the evening to Monsieur Lomond, a 
very ingenins and inventive mechanic, who has made an 
improvement in the jenny for spinning cotton. In 
electricity he has made a remarkable discovery. You 
write two or three words on paper ; he takes it with 
him into a room, and turns a machine inclosed in a cy 
lindrical case, at the top of which is an electrometer, 
and a small fine pitch ball; a wire connects with a 
cylinder and electrometer in a distant apartment, and 
his wife, by remarking the corresponding motions of 
the ball, writes down the words they indicate, from 
which it appears that he has formed an alphabet of mo- 
tions. As the form of the wire makes no difference in 
the effect, the correspondence may be carried on to any 
distance within or without a fortified town, for instance, 
or for purposes much more worthy. Whatever the use 
may be, the invention is beautiful." 

In the year 1794, M. Reiser, of Geneva, used thirty- 
six insulated wires for letters and numerals, in connec- 
tion with a like number of narrow strips of tin foil 
pasted on glass ; the letters and figures were cut in the 
foil and made visible by ( the passage of the electric 
spark. A year later, Tiberius Cavallo, in England, sent 
explosive and other electric signals through fine insu- 



20 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH ; 

lated copper wire, using Leyden jars, and sending 
"sparks at different intervals according to a settled 
plan." Three additional experiments, according to 
Steinheil, put it beyond a doubt that frictional electric- 
ity might be made a successful means of telegraphic in- 
tercourse. These were (1) That of D. F. Salva, Spain, 
who in the year 1798, worked an electric telegraph 
through twenty-six miles, using a single wire, and the 
sparks of a Leyden jar for signals. (2) That of Francis 
Ronalds, who, in 1816, constructed in England an ex- 
perimental telegraph line, of a single insulated wire 
eight miles long, operated by an electrical machine, or 
small Leyden jar. His elementary signal was the di- 
vergence of the pith balls of a Canton s electrometer, 
produced by the communication of a statical charge to 
the wire. Lettered dials, rotated synchronously at 
each end of the line, served, in connection with the pith 
balls, to indicate the letter designated by the sender. 
This dial system was the precursor of Wheatstone's dial 
telegraph in 1839 ; House s letter printing telegraph in 
1846 ; and Hughes' printing telegraph in 1855 , and (3) 
that of Harrison Gray Dyar, America, who, in 1823, 
constructed a telegraph line on Long Island, support- 
ing his wires by glass insulators fixed on trees and 
poles ; the electric signals printed themselves upon lit- 
mus paper, the spacing of the marks indicating the let- 
ters and other signs. Just as Dyar and his partner 
Brown were seeking capital to set up a line between 
New York and Philadelphia, a blackmailing agent, fail- 
ing to extort the concession of a large share in the en- 
terprise, obtained a writ against the two partners on a 



ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 21 

charge of conspiracy to carry on secret communication 
between the cities! The case was never brought to 
trial, but the enterprise was blocked. 

For the above information, beginning with the date 
1794, we are largely indebted to an article which recent- 
ly appeared in the Scientific American, reviewing a work 
on the origin and development of the electro-magnetic 
telegraph, with special reference to Professor Joseph 
Henry's contributions thereto. The work referred to is 
from the pen of William B Taylor, an authority on the 
subject. We quote the remainder of the article as be- 
ing the best summary of the subject with which we are 
acquainted, of particular use to the student of electric- 
ity, and of great value, for reference, to the general 
reader. 

TELEGRAPHS BY GALVANISM. 

"1808. — The first to apply to telegraphy the galvanic 
battery introduced by Volta, in 1800, was Dr. Samuel 
Thomas Von Soemmering, of Munich. He employed 
the energy of a powerful voltaic pile to bring about the 
decomposition of water by means of thirty-five gold 
pins immersed in an oblong glass trough. Each of 
these electrodes was in connection with one of the 
thirty-five wires forming the line. The bubbles evolved 
as these electrodes were received in figured and lettered 
tubes, and the messages were thus spelled out. In 
1810 Soemmering telegraphed through two miles of 
wire. 

"1816. — Dr. John Eedman Coxe, of Philadelphia, 
suggested a system substantially the same as Soemmer- 



J 

Y: 



22 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH : 

ing's (of which he appeared to be ignorant). He also 
proposed to accomplish the same result by decomposing 
metallic salts, as was afterward done. 

"1843. — Mr. Eobert Smith, Scotland, devised a gal- 
vano-chemical telegraph, carrying out practically the 
suggestion of Dr. Coxe. At first he used a separate 
wire for each letter, the message being printed on a 
strip of paper wet with a solution of ferrocyanide of 
potassium. Subsequently Mr. Smith reduced his line 
to a single circuit of two wires, and worked his system 
through 1,800 yards of fence wire (1846). 

"1846. — Mr. Alexander Bain, Scotland, patented in 
England a galvano-chemical telegraph, different in me- 
chanical details, but similar in its chemical record to the 
system of Smith. 

" 1849.— Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse, New York, pa- 
tented in this country a telegraph similar to Smith. 

TELEGRAPHS BY GALVANO-MAGNETISM. 

"1820. — Hans Christian Oersted, Copenhagen, redis- 
covered the directive influence of a galvanic conductor 
on a magnetic needle (Romagnosi's of the same in 1802 
having attracted no attention). The same year (1820) 
Professor Schweiger, of Halle, made the first real gal- 
vanometer; and shortly afterward Ampere, in Paris, 
proved experimentally the feasibility of an electro-mag- 
netic telegraph, in which the galvanometer should take 
the place of the electrometer employed by Lesage. 

"1823.— Baron Paul L. Schilling, of Cronstadt, Rus- 
sia, practically applied Amperes suggestion. In his 



ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 23 

apparatus signals were produced by five galvanometer 
needles, provided with independent circuits. 

"1824. — Peter Barlow, England, experimenting with 
considerable lengths of wire, to test the practicability 
of Ampere s suggestion, was convinced that it was im- 
practicable, owing to the rapid dimunition of effect (due 
to increased resistance), by lengthening the conducting 
wire. Other inclusive experiments in the same direc- 
tion were made by Fechter in 1829, and Kitchie in 
1830. 

"1833.— Prof. Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm 
Edward Weber constructed at Gottingen a galvanom- 
eter telegraph of a single circuit of uninsulated wire a 
mile and a half long. The alphabet of signs was made 
up of right and left deflections of the needle, observed 
by reflections from a small mirror. Gauss was the first 
to employ magneto electricity in telegraphs. "Weber 
added to the signaling device a delicate apparatus for 
setting off a clock alarm. 

"1836.— Prof. 0. A. Steinheil, of Munich, undertook, 
at the request of Gauss, the development of the ar- 
rangement above described, and constructed a similar 
galvanometer telegraph line two miles in length, intro- 
ducing considerable improvements. The next year 
Steinheil discovered that the ground might be made a 
part of the circuit, thus dispensing with a second wire 
for the return circuit. 

"1837.— Mr. William Fothergill Cooke and Prof. 
Charles Wheatstone patented in England a galvanom- 
eter or needle telegraph very similar to the earlier one 
of Schilling, employing six wires and five indicating 



24 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH ! 

needles. An experimental line a mile and a quarter 
long was worked with partial success, July 25 ; and one 
thirteen miles long was established in 1838." 

While these experiments with the needle were go- 
ing on, the electro-magnet was being developed and ap- 
plied. 

1820. — The germ of the electro-magnet was discov- 
ered by Arago, who observed that the electric current 
would develop magnetic power in strips of iron and 
steel. 

1824. — William Sturgeon, England, produced the 
true electro-magnet, with its intermittent control of an 
armature. 

The electro-magnet of Sturgeon was improved by 
Professor Henry in 1828; and in 1829 he exhibited a 
larger magnet of the same character, tightly wound 
with 35 feet of silk covered wire. A pair of small 
galvanic plates, which could be dipped into a tumbler 
of diluted acid, was soldered to the ends of the wire, 
and the whole mounted on a stand. This was the first 
magnetic spool or bobbin. This invention was further 
improved the same year, and in 1830 Professor Henry, 
assisted by Dr. Philip Ten Eyck, constructed an electro- 
magnet which lifted 750 pounds. In 1831 he made one 
weighing 82^ pounds, which sustained over a ton. In 
the meantime Professor Henry practically worked out 
the differing functions of quantity and intensity mag- 
nets, and experimentally established the conditions re- 
quired for magnetizing iron at great distances through 
long conducting wires. This first made the electro- 
magnet available for telegraphic purposes. 



ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 25 

1831. — The transmission of signals through a mile of 
copper bell wire interposed in a circuit between a small 
Cruickshank's battery and an intensity magnet — a 
practical telegraph — was practiced by Professor Henry. 

This memorable experimental telegraphic arrange- 
ment involved three significant and important novelties. 
In the first place, it was the first electro-magnetic tele- 
graph employing an "intensity" magnet capable of 
being excited at very great distances from a suitable 
"intensity" battery. 

In the second place, it was the first electro-magnetic 
telegraph employing the armature as a signaling device, 
or employing the attractive power of the intermittent 
magnet, as distinguished from the directive action of 
the galvanic circuit. That is to say, it was, strictly 
speaking, the first magnetic telegraph. 

In the third place, it was the first acoustic electro- 
magnetic telegraph. 

1837. — Professor Samuel F. B. Morse devised a 
magneto-electric telegraph capable of transmitting sig- 
nals through a circuit of forty feet, but failed for longer 
distances from the circumstance that he used a quantity 
current. His friend, Dr. Gale, made for him an inten- 
sity battery, and added a hundred or more turns to the 
coil of wire around the poles of the magnet. With 
these necessary (and radical) improvements the appa- 
ratus was made to work through ten miles of wire. 
In applying for a caveat for his invention, October 6, 
1837, Professor Morse specified six distract parts, not 
one of which enters into the established "Morse" tele- 
graph of to-day. Mr. Taylor shows that Professor 



26 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH ' 

Morse's real contribution to telegraphy consists first in 
the adaptation of the armature of a Henry electro-mag- 
net to the purpose of a recording instrument ; and 
second, in connection therewith, the improvement on 
the Gauss and Steinheil dual-sign alphabets, made 
by employing the single line dot and dash alphabet. 

In his general summary of the history of the origin 
and developement of the electro-magnetic telegraph, 
Mr. Taylor sets down the leading preparatory investiga- 
tions and discoveries as these five • 

1. The discovery of galvanic electricity by Galvani, 
1786-1790. 

2. The galvanic or voltaic battery by Volta, 1800. 

3. The directive influence of the galvanic current 
on a magnetic needle by Eomagnosi, 1802, and by 
Hoersted, 1820. 

4. The galvanometer by Schweigger,1820 (the parent 
of the needle system). 

5. The electro-magnet by Arago and Sturgeon, 
1820-1825 (the parent of the magnet system). 

The second half dozen capital steps in the evolu- 
tion of telegraphy were : 

1. Henry's most vital discovery, in 1829 and 1830, 
of the intensity magnet and its intimate relation 
to the intensity battery. 

2. Gauss' improvement, in 1833 (or probably 
Schilling's, considerably earlier), of reducing the 
electric conductors to a single circuit by the ingenious 
application of a dual sign, so combined as to produce 



ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 



27 



a true alphabet. (The anticipations of this idea by 
Lomond in 1787, Cavallo in 1795, and Dyar in 1825, 
are not regarded as practically influential in the 
progress of telegraphy). 

3. Weber's discovery, in 1833, that the conducting 
wires of an electric telegraph could be carried through 
the air, without insulation, except at the points of 
sujDport. 

4. As a valuable adjunct to telegraphy, Daniell's 
invention of a constant galvanic battery in 1836. 

5. Steinheil's discovery, in 1837, that a single 
conducting wire is sufficient for telegraphic purposes. 

6. Morse's adaptation of the armature of a Henry 
electro-magnet as a recording instrument, 1837, and 
the single line dot and dash alphabet in 1838. 

The earlier needle type of electro-magnetic telegraph 
has found its special application in ocean lines, no 
element of the Morse system entering into the opera- 
tion of submarine cables. 

The more recent telegraphic developments do not 
fall within the scope of Mr. Taylor's review. A few 
other dates, as given by Prescott, may appropriately 
serve to complete this chronology. 

1861. — Reiss discovered that a vibrating diaphragm 
could be actuated by the voice so as to cause the 
pitch and rhythm of vocal sounds to be transmitted 
to a distance and reproduced by electro-magnetism. 

1872. — Stearns perfected a duplex system, where- 
by two communications could be simultaneously trans- 
mitted over one wire. 



28 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 

1874. — Edison's quadruplex was invented. 

1874. — Gray invented a method of electrical trans- 
mission, by means of which the intensity of tones 
as well as their pitch and rhythm could be re- 
produced at a distance ; and subsequently conceived 
the idea of controlling the formation of electric waves 
by means of the vibrations of a diaphragm capable 
of responding to all the tones of the human voice. 

1876. — Telephone invented. — Bell invented an im- 
provement in the apparatus for the transmission and 
reproduction of articulate speech, in which magneto- 
electric currents were superposed upon a voltaic 
circuit, and actuated an iron diaphragm attached 
to a soft iron magnet. During the same year Dolbear 
conceived the idea of using permanent magnets in 
place of the electro-magnets and battery previously 
employed, and of using the same instrument for 
both sending and receiving. 

1877. — Edison's carbon telephone was brought out. 

To these may be added Edison's electro-motograph, 
or electro-chemical telephone, 1877. 

1878. — Duplexing of ocean telegraph. 

1879. — Cowper's writing telegraph. 

1880. — Field's successful substitution of dynamo- 
electricity for galvanic batteries in telegraphing. 

In the next chapter we shall introduce very interest- 
ing matter in regard to the early days of the electric 
telegraph, which, by the way, began in this coun- 
try in 1844, with one wire between Baltimore and 
Washington. 



INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 29 



INTKODUCTION OF THE ELECTEIC TELE- 
GEAPH IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Under this head we shall introduce matter personal, 
biographical and historical; funny and scientific — very 
miscellaneous, indeed, but all having a direct connec- 
tion with that great event in our national history — the 
introduction of the electric telegraph into this country. 

THE FIRST AMERICAN LINE. 

Anent this event, it is a matter of historic record 
that on the 3d of March, 1843, Congress passed a 
bill appropriating thirty thousand dollars for the con- 
struction of Professor Morse's experimental line be- 
tween Baltimore and Washington, in order to test 
the practicability of the invention. The original model 
of a telegraphic apparatus filed by the honored in- 
ventor when he got his patent has been unearthed 
from a lot of rubbish in the cellar of the Patent 
Office at Washington, where it has been lying for 
years. The clumsiness of the signal key, as compared 
with the one of the present day, is ridiculous. It 
is nearly two feet long, and has a large lump of lead 
at the furthest end from the hand, to throw the key and 
break the circuit: It was at first proposed to lay 
the wires under ground, inclosed in a leaden tube, 
and the contract for laying this tube was taken 
by Mr. F. O. J. Smith, of Maine, who was at that 
time editor of the Portland Farmer, and who had 
previously been— as a member of Congress, and 



30 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 

chairman of the Committee on Commerce — largely 
instrumental in the passage of the appropriation. 
About this time Mr. Ezra Cornell, who was on a 
visit to Maine on business, called upon Mr. Smith, 
who, in speaking of the contract which he had taken 
for laying the wires, and for which he w T as to receive 
one hundred dollars per mile, incidentally remarked 
that, after a careful examination, he had found he would 
lose money by the job. Mr. Smith at the same time 
showed Mr. Cornell a piece of the pipe, and explained 
the manner of its construction, the depth to which 
it was to be laid, and the difficulties which he expected 
to encounter in carrying out the design. Mr. Cornell at 
this same interview, after the brief explanation which 
Mr. Smith had given, told him that in his opinion 
the pipe could be laid by machinery at a much less ex- 
pense than one hundred dollars per mile, and would 
be in the main a profitable operation. At the same 
time he sketched on paper the plan of a machine which 
he thought practicable. This led to the engagement 
of Mr Cornell by Mr. Smith to make such a machine, 
and he immediately went to work and made patterns 
for its construction. While the machine was being 
made, Mr. Cornell went to Augusta, Maine, and settled 
up his business, and then returned to Portland and 
completed the pipe machine. Professor Morse was 
notified by Smith in regard to the machine, and went 
to Portland to see it tried. The trial proved a success. 
Mr. Cornell was employed to take charge of laying the 
pipe. Under his hands the work advanced rapidly, 
and he had laid ten miles or more of the pipe when 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 31 

Professor Morse discovered that the insulation was so 
imperfect that the telegraph would not operate. He 
did not, however, stop the work until he had received 
orders ; which order came in the following singular 
manner: When the evening train came out from 
Baltimore, Professor Morse was observed to step from 
the car ; he walked up to Mr. Cornell, took him 
aside, and said: "Mr, Cornell, cannot you contrive to 
stop the work for a few days without its being known 
that it is done on purpose? If it is known that I 
ordered its stoppage, the plaguy papers will find it out 
and have all kinds of stories about it." Mr. Cornell, 
with his usual quickness of discernment, saw the con- 
dition of affairs and told the professor that he would 
make it all right. So he ordered the drivers to start 
the team of eight mules which set the machine in 
motion, and, while driving along at a lively pace, 
in order to reach the Relay House, a distance of about 
twenty rods, before it was time to "turn out/' managed 
to tilt the machine so as to catch it under the point of 
a projecting rock. This apparent accident so damaged 
the machine as to render it useless. The professor 
retired in a state of perfect contentment, and the 
Baltimore papers on the following morning had an 
interesting subject for a paragraph. The work thus 
being of necessity suspended, Professor Morse con- 
vened a grand council at the Relay House, composed 
of himself, Professor Gale, Dr. Fisher, Mr. Vail, and 
P. O. J. Smith, the persons especially concerned in the 
undertaking. After discussing the matter, they de- 
termined upon further efforts for perfecting the insula- 



32 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 

tion. These failed, and orders were given to remove 
everything to Washington. Up to this time Professor 
Morse and his assistants had expended twenty-two 
thousand dollars, and all in vain. Measures were 
taken to reduce the expenses, and Mr. Cornell was 
appointed assistant superintendent, and took entire 
charge of the undertaki-n «. He no— altered the de- 
sign, substituting poles for the pipe. This may be re- 
garded as the commencement of " air lines " of tele- 
graph. He commenced the erection of the line be- 
tween Baltimore and Washington on poles, and had it 
in successful operation in time to report the proceed- 
ings of the conventions which nominated Heniy Clay 
and James K. Polk for the presidency. 

APATHY OF SCIENTISTS, PRESS AND PUBLIC. 

Although the practicability of the telegraph had 
been so thoroughly tested, it did not at once become 
popular. A short line was erected in New York city in 
the spring of 1845, having its lower office at 112 Broad- 
way and its upper office near Niblo's. The resources of 
the company had been entirely exhausted, so that 
they were unable to pay Mr. Cornell for his ser- 
vices, and he was directed to charge visitors twenty 
five cents for admission, so as to raise the funds requisite 
to defray expenses. Yet sufficient interest was not 
shown by the community even to support Mr. Cornell 
and his assistant. Even the New York press was 3p 
posed to the telegraphic project. The proprietor of 
the New York Herald — think of the astute elder Ben- 
nett making such a big blunder — when called upon by 
Mr. Cornell and requested to say a good word in 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 33 

his favor, emphatically refused, stating distinctly that 
it would be greatly to his disadvantage should the 
telegraph succeed. Stranger still it is that many of 
those very men who would be expected to be entirely 
in favor of the undertaking, namely, men of scientific 
pursuits, stood aloof and declined to endorse it. In 
order to put up the line in the most economical man- 
ner, Mr. Cornell desired to attach the wires to the city 
buildings which lined its course. Many house-owners 
objected, alleging that it would invalidate their insur- 
ance policies by increasing the risk of their buildings 
being sti ick by lightning. Mr. Cornell cited the 
theory of the lightning rod as demonstrated by Frank- 
lin, and sho red that the telegraphic wire would add 
safety to their buildings. Some persons still refused, 
but informed him that could he procure a certificate 
from Professor Kenwick, then connected with Columbia 
College, to the effect that the wires would not increase 
the risk of then buildings, they would allow him to 
attach his wires. Mr. Cornell thought the obtaining 
of such a certificate a very easy matter, and certainly 
all scientific men were agreed upon the Franklin theory. 
He therefore posted off to Columbia College, saw the 
distinguisned savan, stated his errand, and requested 
the certificate, saying it would be doing Professor 
Morse a great favor. To his utter consternation the 
learned professor replied : " No, I cannot do that," 
alleging that " the wires would increase the risk of the 
buildings being struck by lightning." Mr. Cornell was 
obliged to go into an elaborate discussion of the Frank- 
lin theory of the lightning-rod, until the professor con- 
3 



34 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 

fessed himself in error, and prepared the desired certi- 
ficate, for which opinion he charged him twenty-five 
dollars. This certificate enabled Mr. Cornell to carry 
out his plans. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE INSTRUMENTS FIRST USED. 

The apparatus used on the original line between 
Baltimore and Washington in 1844 would be some- 
thing of a curiosity at the present time. The relay 
magnets weighed one hundred and eighty-five pounds, 
and it required two men to handle one of them if it 
became necessary to move it. The coils were about 
eighteen inches in diameter, and were composed of No. 
16 copper wire insulated with cotton thread. It was 
supposed at that time to be indispensably necessary 
that the wire surrounding the magnets should be 
the same size as the wire of the line. Professor Charles 
Grafton Page, a short time afterward, devised a mag- 
net of considerably less size, which was used in the 
lines built during the years 1845 and 1846. Professor 
Morse, while in France in the year 1845, obtained 
some electro-magnets of about the same size of those 
now in use, which he brought to this country and 
made use of in working the telegraph. The first 
small relay magnet made in this country was con- 
structed, we believe, by Clark of Philadelphia in 1845 
or 1846, and in its general form was very similar to 
those now in use. 

An interesting relic of the early days of telegraphy 
has been discovered at Morristown, N. J. It is the 
first instrument by which messages were received and 
sent by aid of the electric current, and was one of two 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 35 

taken from Morristown by Morse and Vail — Morse 
using one at Washington, and Vail the other at Balti- 
more. The first message sent was the now well-known 
"What has God wrought ?" which Morse transniitted 
to Vail ; but the first public message was the news of 
the nomination of Polk to the presidency by the 
Baltimore convention of 1844, sent by Vail to 
Morse. 

These instruments were in constant use for six years, 
when Mr. Vail, returning to Morristown, brought his 
with him, and where it has still remained in the pos~ 
session of his family. Mr. Vail dying soon after, his 
instrument was specially left by a clause in his 
will to his eldest son as an heirloom, while parts 
of instruments made during the experimental trials 
were left to Professor Morse, with a request that 
he would give them at some future day to the New 
Jersey Historical Society. The old instrument works 
as well as when first made. Its dimensions are sixteen 
inches in length, seven inches in height, six inches 
wide, with two magnets of three inches diameter. The 
paper used was two and a half inches in width, three 
pens being proposed to be used. The weight of the 
instrument is twenty pounds. 

"GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS GROW." 

In the year 1850, Mr. Alfred Vail, of whom we shall 
have occasion to say more by and by, wrote a manu- 
script giving an account of the receipts of the tele- 
graph at the Washington office during the first four 



36 introduction of the electric telegraph 

days of its operation after it had been taken under the 
patronage of the government. The details form a 
forcible illustration of the truth of the motto at the 
head of this paragraph. Mr. Vail's manuscript reads 
as follows : 

MR. VAIL'S ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST WEEK OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

■ " The telegraph was first put in operation between 
Washington and Baltimore in the spring of 1844, and 
was shown without charge until April 1, 1845. Con- 
gress, during the session of 1844-45, made an appro- 
priation of $8,000 to keep it in operation during the 
year, placing it, at the same time, under the supervision 
of the postmaster-general. He, at the close of the ses- 
sion, ordered a tariff of charges of one cent for every 
four characters made by or through the telegraph, 
appointing also the operators of the line — Mr Vail for 
the Washington station, and Mr. H. J. Eoberts for Bal- 
timore. 

"This new order of things commenced on April 1, 
1845, and the object was to test the profitableness of 
the enterprise. The receipts for April 1-4, inclusive, 
were as follows: 

"It should be borne in mind that Mr. Polk had just 
been inaugurated, and, as is always the case on the ad- 
vent of a new administration, the city was filled with 
persons seeking for office. A gentleman of Virginia, who 
stated that to be his errand to the city, came to the 
office of the telegraph on the 1st day of April, and de- 
sired to see its operation. The oath of office being 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 37 

fresh in the mind of the operator, and he being deter- 
mined to fulfil it to the letter, the gentleman was told 
of the rates of charges, and that he could see its oper- 
ation by sending his name to Baltimore and having it 
sent back, at the rate of four letters or figures for a 
cent, or he might ask Baltimore regarding the weather, 
etc. This he refused to do, and coaxed, argued and 
threatened. He said there could be no harm in show- 
ing him its operation, as that was all he wanted. He 
was told of the oath just taken by the incumbent, and 
of his intention to keep it faithfully ; and that, if it was 
shown to him by the passage of a communication gratui- 
tously, it would be in violation of his oath of office. 
He stated he had no change. In reply, he was told that 
if he would call upon the postmaster-general and ob- 
tain his consent that the operation should be shown 
him gratis, the operator would cheerfully comply to al- 
most any extent. He stated in reply that he knew the 
postmaster-general, and had considerable influence with 
some of the officers of the government, and that he 
(the operator) had better show it to him at once, inti- 
mating that he might be subjected to some peril by re- 
fusing. He was told that no regard would be paid to 
the extent of his influence, be it great or little ; that he 
did not think he was at liberty to use the property of 
the government for individual benefit when under oath 
to exact pay, and cited the rules of the post-office in 
relation to the carriage of letters, but that he was wil- 
ling to do as directed by the postmaster-general (Hon. 
Cave Johnson). The discussion lasted almost an hour, 
when the gentleman left the office in no pleasant mood. 



88 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 

"This was the patronage received by the Washington 
office on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of April On the 4th 
the same gentleman turned up again, and repeated some 
of his former arguments He was asked if he had 
seen the postmaster-general, and obtained his consent 
to his request, to which he replied he had not After 
considerable discussion, which was rather amusing than 
vexatious, he said that he had nothing less than a twen- 
ty-dollar bill and one cent, all of which he pulled out of 
his breeches pocket. He was told that he eouJd have a 
cent's worth of telegraphing, if that would answer, to 
which he agreed. After his many manoeuvres and long 
agony the gentleman was finally gratified in the follow 
ing manner: Washington asked Baltimore 4. which 
meant, in the list of signals, 'What time is it* Balti 
more replied 1, which meant ' 1 o'clock The amount 
of the operation was one character each way. making 
two in all, which, at the rate of four for a cent, would 
amount to half a cent exactly. He laid down his cent, 
but was told that half a cent would suffice, if he 
could produce the change. This he declined to do, and 
gave the whole cent, after which, being satisfied, he left 
the office. 

"Such was the income of the Washington office for 
the first four days of April, 1845. On the 5th twelve 
and a half cents were received. The' 6th was the Sab- 
bath. On the 7th the receipts ran up to sixty cents; 
on the 8th to $1.32; on the 9th to $1.04. It is worthy 
of remark," concludes Mr. Vail, "that more business 
was done by the merchants after the tariff was laid than 
when the service was gratuitous." 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 39 

The humors of the telegraph form a fruitful subject. 
Numerous good stories are constantly cropping out to 
vary and relieve the routine of telegraphic operations. 
Many of these get into the public prints, and increase 
that capital of mirthful yarns which is an important 
means of health to this over- worked generation. Upon 
comparing the best of these with those that are told of 
the funny blunders and incidents accompanying the be- 
ginning of telegraphic operations, the writer is of the 
opinion that the latter are certainly the more side split- 
ting Take for instance that of the old lady who wrote 
a letter to headquarters asking them to remove the 
wires which had been attached to her chimney, and 
said: "I must request you to remove your wires from 
my chimney immediately. The noise the message 
makes going along the wires is sometimes awful, and 
sometimes — I suppose when the operator has a hard 
word to spell — I declare it quite shakes the house." 

Another good old soul, with due respect for the pro- 
prieties, on seeing some telegraph wire while taking 
her first ride by rail, was heard to remark: "Well, I 
have often said they would never git me into the rail- 
road cars, but I know they will never git me on to them 
telegraft wires." 

When the telegraph was being introduced into a 
populous district of Massachusetts, hardly five minutes 
had elapsed after the erection of one of the poles, be- 
fore some enterprising genius posted a bill thereon, and 
soon two street Arabs were attracted to the spot, when 
the following dialogue ensued: 

"I say, Mickey, what an invintion the telegraph 
is." 



40 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 

" Yes, an' here's a dispatch broke out on the post 
a'ready." 

"When the telegraph was first put in operation be- 
tween Portland and Boston, a countryman drove a flock 
of turkeys to the former place for a market, but not 
finding so good a sale as he anticipated, he inquired of 
some by-standers their price in Boston. Some wag of 
a fellow advised him to step into the telegraph office. 
Jonathan entered and put the all-important question to 
the ojDerator, who immediately telegraphed to Boston, 
and in a few minutes received an answer to his inquiry, 
and informed his customer. Jonathan looked at the 
operator with a sly wink and exclaimed: u You can't 
gum it over me." He was about leaving the office when 
the operator told him that there were nine shillings to 
pay. Jonathan bristled up and burst forth in a rage : 
"You can't gum it over me. That old tick-box 
of yourn hain't been out of this room since I've been 
here." 

Notwithstanding the severest kind of temptation, the 
humor reserved for this place must be cut down to one 
more story, told at the expense of Mr. J. B. Stearns, 
who afterward invented the Stearns system of duplex 
telegraphing, referred to in last chapter. Mr. Stearns 
at that time officiated as one of the operators in the 
now long ago when the Boston fire alarm was a new 
institution. One summer night when he was on duty, 
he was startled by hearing a church bell in South Bos 
ton, which was connected with one of the " alarm cir- 
cuits," break forth at a most unseemly hour with a con- 
tinuous " cling dong, ding-dong," which bade fair to 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 41 

awaken every slumbering inhabitant within the radius 
of a mile. As the striker of the bell was driven by- 
water power, which was merely controlled by the elec- 
tric current, Stearns was fully aware of the fact that the 
armature of the magnet had " stuck," or otherwise got 
out of gear, and that the racket would probably con- 
tinue until some one went over there and adjusted it, or 
else until the supply of Cochituate water failed — a 
slightly improbable contingency. Of course he couldn't 
leave his post, and therefore was obliged to sit and 
listen to the concert, which, under the circumstances, he 
probably enjoyed nearly as well as the citizens in the 
immediate neighborhood of the performance. Stearns, 
however, being a gentleman of resources, was not to be 
foiled so easily. A happy thought finally struck him. 
He would reverse the battery on that circuit, which 
would doubtless release the "stuck" armature, and re- 
store quiet to the distracted inhabitants, who by this 
time were doubtless beginning to get mad, and revile 
the fire alarm and the individuals connected therewith 
in a highly improper manner. The wires were changed, 
and the clamor instantaneously ceased. On the follow- 
ing morning, in the serene consciousness of a good 
deed well performed, Stearns duly reported the inci 
dent to his chief, Mr. Moses G. Farmer, who did not 
hesitate to bestow the praise so justly due to the inge 
nuity of his subordinate, but suggested that it might 
also be well to examine the defective striker, and, if 
need be, adjust it, so as to prevent the possibility of 
another similar accident. Singular to state, when Stearns 
arrived at the scene of the previous night's disturbance 



42 



INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 



he found that the door of the church, and also the bel- 
fry, had been stove in with an axe, and the hammer of 
the bell effectually tied up by a strong rope. Whether 
this result was, as a whole, brought about merely by 
the reversal of that battery still remains an open ques- 
tion. It is understood, however, that even Stearns him- 
self has always entertained some doubt of it. 

"honor to whom honor is due." 

Clamors are still made by the respective friends of 
those who aided in bringing the telegraph to perfection, 
for the preference to be given to a certain one out of 
several names conspicuous among the leaders in, possi- 
bly, this highest achievement of human ingenuity. 

RONALDS. 

England has lately witnessed the conferring of the 
honor of knighthood upon Mr. Francis Ronalds, for 
whom no meaner an authority than the Pall Mall Gazette 
claims that he " is neither more nor less than the origi- 
nator of our telegraph system. He was the very first," 
it adds, " either in England or abroad, to invent an elec- 
tric telegraph so constructed as to be capable of exten- 
sive practical application, and so far back as 1823 he 
fully developed its principle and mode of action. Still 
earlier, namely, m 1816, he had constructed a working 
electric telegraph, and on offering it to the then gov- 
ernment, received an answer which can never be too 
often cited as an illustration of official complacency : 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 43 

' Telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unnecessary, 
and no other than the one now in use will be adopted.' 
Nothing daunted by this apathy, Mr. Ronalds matured 
his invention, and in 1823 published a ' Description of 
an Electric Telegraph, and of some other Electrical Ap 
paratus.' Mr. Ronalds was too far ahead of his time, 
and too purely a man of science, to secure a hearing foi 
his discovery in those early days, and it was left to 
others to mature his idea, and to establish the system 
which his prophetic eye had foreseen would one day 
transform the world. It was not till 1837, fourteen 
years after Mr. Ronalds' pamphlet, that Messrs. Cooke 
and Wheatstone took out their first patent. The science 
and practical skill of these and other eminent electri 
cians have brought electric communication to its pres- 
ent state ; but the great fact remains that Mr. Ronalds 
was the first to demonstrate practically the principle 
which they have developed." 

MORSE. 

In our own country, Morse has been, as is usual in 
such disputes, both unduly praised and undervalued on 
account of his services to the public. 

Readers of the foregoing matter, particularly the 
concluding portion of an earlier chapter and the begin- 
ning of this, are able, it is believed, to form a clear con 
ception of what he did, stated as matters of fact, with- 
out exaggeration or depreciation. In the opinion of 
the writer, the public honors paid Morse, notably in the 
erection of his statue in Central Park, have in no wise 



44 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 

exceeded his merits; bat there may be room, he thinks, 
for the more emphatic recognition of services rendered 
by gentlemen associated with him in the introduction 
of the same wonderful improvement. 

HENRY. 

For the purpose of doing justice to a name which 
cannot be held in too great honor, it is but right to ap- 
pend to these observations a summarized statement of 
what Professor Henry did toward the development of 
the telegraph. His improvement upon Sturgeon's elec- 
tro-magnet "consisted in insulating the conducting wire 
itself, instead of the rod to be magnetized, and cover 
ing the whole surface of the iron with a series of coils, 
in close contact. Henry's magnet was described in Sil 
liman's Journal in 1831 ; and, in 1832, a mechanical ar- 
rangement was put up in the Albany Academy for making 
-signals and sounding a bell through a wire more than a 
mile in length. Previous to Professor Henry s investi 
gations the means of developing magnetism in soft iron 
were imperfectly understood, and no electro- magnet, 
applicable to the telegraph, was known The particu- 
lar form of battery adapted to project the current 
through a long conductor was first pointed out by 
Henry, and he was the first to magnetize a piece of iron 
at a distance, and to call attention to the fact of the a-p 
piicability of the experiment to the telegraph The 
principles developed by him were applied to render the 
various machines invented by Gauss, Weber, Steinheil, 
Wheatstone d,nd Morse effective at a distance. The 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 45 

galvanometer now employed for transmitting messages 
by the Atlantic cable, is about as close an imitation of 
the apparatus devised by Henry for ringing a bell, in 
the Albany Academy in 1832, as the different circum- 
stances of the cases require; and the electro-magnet, 
now used for the telegraph all over the world, is the 
one invented and described by Henry in 1831. Whether 
the instrument used be a semaphore — that is, carrying 
evanescent signals, or a telegraph making a permanent 
record — the engine for driving the works by' aid of the 
battery is the electro-magnet invented by Professor 
Henry The philosopher who discovered the scientific 
principles upon which the electromagnet is founded, 
and who invented the form of apparatus best adapted 
to demonstrate these principles, must be regarded by 
the who]e world as having made the chief contribution 
toward the application of electro-magnetism to the va- 
rious wants of man This philosopher was Joseph 
Henrv, and to him was accorded the homage of the 
whole scientific world for his magnificent researches." 
So speaks the Scientific American in an article whose 
principal points we hereby gladly assist to preserve. 



VAIL. 



Not long ago Cincinnati brought to light a volume of 
nearly eiefht hundred pages, entitled* "Up the Heights 
of Fame and Fortune, and the Routes Taken by the 
Climbers to become Men of Mark/' containing, among 
much interesting matter, notices of Professor Morse and 



46 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPR 

his associate, Alfred Vail. To the latter is ascribe' the 
invention of the first available telegraph instrument. 
Mr Vail was born in New Jersey in 1807, and early 
displayed great mechanical ingenuity. While a student 
under Prof. Morse at the New York University, in 1835, 
he saw the latter's first rude machine, and, by virtue 
of engaging to devote his personal services and skill to- 
ward perfecting the invention, became an owner of one- 
eighth of the patent. He also offered Prof. Morse 
much needed pecuniary aid. In 1853 the professor 
said that to the joint liberality of Vail's father and 
brother, " but especially to Alfred's attention and skill 
and faith," was due the success of his early endeavors 
to bring the telegraph before the public. On the pas- 
sage of the telegraph bill in 1843 Alfred was appointed 
one of Mr. Morse's assistants. 

Having stated these biographical facts, the writer of 
the book we have referred to, says: 

, "The Morse machine of 1836 passed into Vail's hands 
in 1837, for an entire mechanical reconstruction through- 
out — to speak a language not entirely unknown to the 
first machine, but to perform entirely new functions, 
and to produce an entirely new system of signs and 
letters which the first by its structure was physically 
unable of being made to speak. Alfred Vail invented 
the first combination of the horizontal lever motion to 
actuate a pen, pencil or style, and the entirely new tele- 
graphic alphabet of dots, spaces and marks, and he did 
so prior to September, 1837, the month when the old 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 47 

instrument passed into his hands for reconstruction. 
His more perfect invention of a steel style upon a lever, 
which could strike into the paper as it was drawn on- 
ward over a ground roller, and emboss upon it the 
same alphabetic characters, was not invented until 
1844, about the time the first line of telegraph began to 
operate between Baltimore and Washington. This in- 
strument, somewhat transformed, still holds its place 
as practically the best ever invented." 

He then quotes extensively from the correspondence 
between Professors Morse and Henry, and reproduces a 
plain-spoken letter from Vail, to show why he did not 
urge his claims to the credit of the invention. This 
letter is deemed of so much importance by the publish- 
ers that they have given it in lithographic facsimile. 
It is as follows: 

" The lever and roller were invented by me, in the 
sixth story of the New York Observer office, in 1844 
before we put up the telegraph line between Washing - 
ton and Baltimore, and this combination has beer al- 
ways used in Morse's instrument. I am the sole and 
only inventor of this mode of telegraph embossed writ- 
ing. Professor Morse gave me no clue to it, nor did 
any one else, and I have not asserted publicly my right 
as first and sole inventor because I wished to preserve 
the peaceful unity of the invention, and because I could 
not, according to my contract with Professor Morse, 
have got a patent for it. 

" Alfred Vail." 



48 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 

As early as 1847 Prof. Morse urged Mr. Vail to sell 
to him his interest in the telegraph for $15,000, but he 
refused. He died in January, 1859. Amos Kendall, a 
friend of both parties, said: "If justice be done, the 
name of Alfred Vail will forever stand associated with 
that of Samuel F. B. Morse, in the history of the in- 
vention and introduction into public use of the electro- 
magnetic telegraph." 



A CLASS WHOSE SERVICES SHOULD NOT BE OVERLOOKED. 

In giving " honor to whom honor is due/' we must 
not overlook the claim of the laborer for the recognition 
of his indispensable services in making the telegraph 
a public convenience. A young Irishman, a member 
of a debating society in Geneva, New York, may be 
quoted as having done good service to his class by his 
emphatic and characteristically "bulling" method of 
making his claim. At a recent meeting of his society the 
subject of discussion was: " Which is of the most bene- 
fit to the country — the mechanic or the laborer?" One 
young man took the side of the mechanic, and expatiat- 
ed at great length. Among a multitude of other things, 
he claimed that mechanics made and laid the Atlantic 
cable, and sat down amid loud applause. For a few 
minutes it looked as if there was no one bold enough 
to challenge his conclusion. At length a laborer came 
forward and said that he had a few words to say on the 
subject. He was willing to admit that the mechanic 
had made and laid the Atlantic cable; but, exclaimed 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 49 

he, smiting the table with a fist about the size of a 
twenty-three pound ham, and looking around with an 
air of triumph upon the audience, who were terrified 
at seeing the table sink to the floor under the force of 
his ponderous blow: "Be jabers, who dug the post 
holes?" 



50 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 



A CHAPTEE ABOUT OPEEATOES AND MES- 
SENGEES. 

The electric telegraph has created a new industry, in 
its nature pleasantly intermingling manual and mental 
operations, not severe, but requiring close attention; 
educational of the observation and judgment, and 
affording scope to the ambitious for remunerative pro- 
motion. Moreover, it gives employment to women as 
well as men, and thus assists in the practical solution 
of the difficult question: What must society do with the 
capable and intelligent female population who cannot 
marry, for the very sufficient reason, among others, that 
there are not enough men to mate every one of them? 
The army of bright boys employed as messengers must 
not be lost sight of here. These earn their living in a 
manner which gives them enough physical and not too 
great mental exercise ; as desirable as any, in short, for 
quick and growing boys, many of whom themselves 
subsequently become professional operators, or, if not, 
are at least prepared, by their apprenticeship in the 
telegraph office, for other useful employment. 

THE TELEGRAPH OFFICE A SCHOOL FOR THE STUDY OF HUMAN 

NATURE. 

"While, in common with all other occupations, that of 
the telegraph operator is one of detail and routine, it 
probably affords more than any other, in the variety of 
people requiring his assistance, and the diverse char- 



OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 61 

acter of messages received and sent, matter of amuse- 
ment, information, thought and reflection. The tele- 
graph office is a school for the study of human nature, 
of the multifarious occasions of business, the domestic 
and social relations, and politics, and the mental and 
emotional operations called out thereby. In the words 
of a writer whose name we regret to be unable to give : 
" The telegrapher's window is an eye through which the 
operator looks upon the world. Before it passes in a 
single day more of the very wine of human experience 
than one could observe in a whole decade of European 
travel. The business man, brisk, keen and active, leers at 
him through that window; the burglar, bold and skill- 
ful, sends his telegram in cipher to a confederate; and 
the widow, in weeds, sends to her friends the mournful 
sentences: 'Charley is dead. Come to me!' The tele- 
grapher receives the communication respectfully, duly 
marks it with some hieroglyphic signs, and speedily the 
electric soul of the battery utters, a thousand miles 
away: 'Charley is dead. Come to me !' It may be to a 
mother, to a father, or to a brother; but it carries a 
pressing request, and to-morrow, or the day after, the 
individual to whom the message is addressed is in New 
York. Or it may be that the father, or mother, or sis- 
ter, or brother, cannot leave home; and then comes 
back the sorrowful answer: 'Business is pressing; will 
come as soon as I can.' And the widow weeps alone 
with her dead. 

" Curious messages in curious handwriting are handed 
to him through the window — telegrams with bad spell- 
ing, and telegrams with bad grammar; telegrams that 



52 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 

a hieroglyphicist, who may have delved for years amid 
the mummy-cases of Egypt, could never unriddle; and 
these last are handed back with a suave request to read 
and interpret. 

"There are telegrams in cramped, unnatural hand, 
and telegrams in the round, fanciful hand of the writ- 
ing-master; telegrams with capitals where they should 
not be, and telegrams with no caps ' at all — but very 
few with 'caps' where they should be; telegrams of 
laborious pomposity from venerable professors, and 
telegrams curt and brief and epigrammatic, from those 
who know how to save a penny at the expense of per- 
spicuity; in short, there are telegrams of all sorts — not 
excepting dead-head telegrams, of which some are sent 
and some are not sent, according to the claims of the 
individual to be considered a dead-head." 

CONSCIENTIOUS CARE GIVEN TO HAVING MESSAGES DELIVERED. 

Operators, as a class of public servants, are among 
the worthiest. Outsiders know little or nothing of the 
pains sometimes taken, without request or remuneration, 
to insure the delivery of dispatches incorrectly address- 
ed. This is mentioned only as an example of the con- 
scientious care given to work which comes before them, 
in many cases whero ii strict justice, it migi-t be Vd 
aside without prejudice to the operator's interests with 
relation to his employer, as being in accordance with 
the prescribed routine of the office. 

THE LITERATURE OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

The operators of the United States are justly proud of 



OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 53 

their prof essional skill,and generously assist the means of 
literary communication afforded them in the books and 
papers prepared for their use and recreation. These evi- 
dence a very considerable degree of literary merit, and 
there is an intelligent demand for mo :e which reflects 
credit upon the craft. The literature of the telegraph 
is a most interesting and pleasing feature of the times. 
Curious examples have been given of operators com- 
municating by Morse characters under circumstances 
of peculiar difficulty. The most notable of these 
which the writer ever encountered is the following, from 
the pen of Mr. D. B. Grandy, until recently a well- 
known operator in the Boston office. It is proper to 
say that, with a view of verifying the statement before 
giving it here, the publisher wrote Mr. Grandy on the 
subject, and received the reply that the matter was pre- 
cisely as given in the subjoined account: 

A CASE OF EPILEPTIC TELEGRAPHY. 

"In the winter of 1870-71," says Mr. Grandy, "I 
was employed in the Western Union office at Boston. 

Among my associates was George , with whom 

I had formed an intimate acquaintance and friendship. 
One evening I was at the theatre, when considerable 
commotion occurred in the balcony above me. After 
the play I learned that a man had fainted and been 
carried out insensible. On arriving at my lodgings I 
found that the man was no other than my friend George, 
who also occupied a room in the same house. I went 
to his room and found his room-mate and a physician 
there, while George lay on the bed, his face pale, his 



54 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 

eyes open, but fixed and glassy, and his limbs cold and 
rigid as death. The physician pronounced it an epilep- 
tic fit. We spoke to him, chafed him, and made every 
effort to rouse him, but in vain. Finally we sat down 
and awaited his return to consciousness. I drew my 
chair up to his side, and took his hand in mine. As I 
did so I noticed a feeble pressure by his fingers, and 
then that pressure resolved itself into dots and dashes, 
and I read from them: 

"'W-h-a-t d-o-c-t-o-r s-a-y a-b-t m-eT 

"'I asked him if he could hear what I said to him.' 

"<Y-e-s.' 

"'Are you in pain?' 

"<Y-e-s.' 

"'Can't you speak?' 

"'N-o.' " 

"In short, I got, from the slight pressure of his fin- 
gers, enough dots and dashes to describe his feelings 
to the physician, who was enabled by the description 
thus obtained to judge of his condition and apply the 
necessary remedies, so that, after watching by his bed- 
side until the small hours of the morning, we were re- 
lieved from our anxiety by signs of returning anima- 
tion. By four o'clock he was completely himself again, 
but greatly exhausted, and it was several days before 
he was able to appear at the office. He afterward in- 
formed me that from the time he fainted in the theatre 
until he came out of the trance, he knew all that was 
passing around him, and heard all that was said, but 
could neither see, speak nor move a muscle, except those 
of his fingers, which he was able to use sufficiently to 



OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 55 

communicate with us by feeble dots and dashes. The 
physician pronounced it the most singular case of the 
kind that ever came under his treatment. Certainly no 
other method of communicating was possible in his 
condition, and it would seem from this incident that a 
person in a dying condition would be able, if he pos- 
sessed a knowledge of telegraphic characters, to let his 
thoughts and feelings be known long after any other 
means of communication became impossible." 

AN ARMLESS OPERATOR. 

Mr. Patrick Shea, of Binghamton, N. Y., operates with- 
out arms, an accomplishment mastered after six months 
of close and unwearied application. Having lost both 
arms in an accident while fireman on the Albany and 
Susquehanna Bailroad, he was provided with a pair of 
cork substitutes, and with these performs all his duties 
as operator. 

A DEAF OPERATOR RECEIVING BY SOUND. 

When the magnetic telegraph was first introduced, 
there was an arrangement by which the letters and 
words communicated were reeled off by means of punc- 
tures in long narrow strips of white paper, after this 
fashion, namely : , , etc. These were trans- 
lated by the receiving operator, and thus rendered into 
readable English. In the course of time this attach- 
ment to the Morse instrument was dispensed with, and 
the operators, instead, read the messages by sound, or 
the clicking of the instrument, with the proper inter- 
vals for a clear understanding of that language, so that 



56 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 

there could be just as much certainty as there is in 
speaking, compared to written or printed communica- 
tions. The operator's ear was rendered more and more 
acute, and he, therefore, could hear the faintest vibra- 
tions, or the whisperings of the instrument. But one 
would scarcely think that the arrangement would suit 
a deaf man. It does not, but the deaf man can suit 
himself to even these circumstances. The fact is de- 
monstrated. There was a gentleman in the American 
Telegraph Company's office, in Washington, who, 
though he could not hear, was classed as a first-class 
operator, dealing with sounds! He could send and re- 
ceive dispatches intelligently. But how was this done ? 
By the sense of feeling. He placed his leg against that 
of the instrument table, and in other ways read by the 
slight jarring, while watching the operation of the in- 
strument itself, and he thus understood all that the little 
" sounder" was talking about. 

A " FRISCO" YARN. 

"Two young men," says the Chronicle of San Fran- 
cisco, "telegraph operators, board at one of our lead- 
ing third-class hotels, and being of a somewhat hilarious 
disposition, find great amusement in carrying on con- 
versation with each other at the table by ticking on 
their plates with a knife, fork or spoon. For the infor- 
mation of those not familiar with telegraphy it may be 
well to state that a combination of sounds or ticks con- 
stitutes the telegraphic alphabet, and persons familiar 
with these sounds can converse thereby as intelligibly 
as with spoken words. The young lightning strikers, 



OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 57 

as already stated, were in the habit of indulging in table 
talk by this means whenever they desired to say any- 
thing private to each other. For instance, No. 1 would 
pick up his knife and tick off some such remark as this 
to No. 2 : 'Why is this butter like the offence of Ham- 
let's uncle?' 

"No. 2 — 'I give it up.' 

"No. 1 — 'Because it's rank, and smells to heaven/ 

" Of course the joke is not appreciated by the landlord 
(who sits close by), because he doesn't understand tele- 
graphic ticks, and probably he wouldn't appreciate it 
much if he did; but the jokers enjoy it immensely, 
and laugh immoderately, while the other guests wonder 
what can be the occasion for this merriment, and natu- 
rally conclude that the operators must be idiots. 

"A few days ago, while these fun-loving youths were 
Seated at breakfast, a stout-built young man entered 
the dining room with a handsome girl on his arm, whose 
timid, blushing countenance showed her to be a bride. 
The couple had, in fact, been married but a day or two 
previous, and had come to San Francisco from their 
home in Oakland, or Mud Springs, or some other rural 
village, for the purpose of spending the honeymoon. 
The telegraphic tickers commenced as soon as the hus- 
band and wife had seated themselves. 

" No. 1 opened the discourse as follows : ' What a 
lovely little pigeon this is alongside of me — ain't she % ' 

"No. 2 — 'Perfectly charming — looks as if butter 
wouldn't melt in her mouth. Just married, I guess. 
iDon't you think so?' 

"No. 1 — 'Yes, I should judge she was. What luscious 



58 OPEKATORS AND MESSENGERS. 

lips she's got! If that country bumpkin beside her 
was out of the road, I'd give her a hug and a kiss, just 
for luck.' 

" No. 2 — ' Suppose you try it anyhow. Give her a little 
nudge under the table with your knee.' 

" There is no telling to what extent the impudent ras- 
cals might have gone but for an amazing and entirely 
unforseen event. The bridegroom's face had flushed, 
and a dark scowl was on his brow during the progress 
of the ticking conversation, but the operators were too 
much occupied with each other to pay any attention to 
him. The reader may form some idea of the young 
men's consternation when the partner of the lady 
picked up his knife and ticked off the following terse 
but vigorous message: 

" 'This lady is my wife, and as soon as she gets through 
with her breakfast I propose to wring your necks, you 
insolent whelps.' 

" The countenances of the operators fell very suddenly 
when this message commenced. By the time it ended 
they had lost all appetite and appreciation of jokes, 
and slipped out of the dining room in a very rapid and 
unceremonious manner. The bridegroom, it seems, 
was a telegraph operator himself." 

RECOGNIZING EACH OTHER'S TOUCH. 

Operators who are in the habit of receiving from and 
sending to one another, become so accustomed to the 
peculiarities of each other's touch as to readily recog- 
nize it. For example, it is told of Mr. Hempstead, one 
of the operatois in the Western Union Telegraph Com- 
pany's office at Hartford, Conn., that by this means he 



OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 59 

succeeded in making a discovery of great importance 
to an unfortunate man and his friends. The circum- 
stances were these : Mike W. Sherman, formerly a tele- 
graph operator in Hartford, escaped from the Middle- 
town insane asylum, where he had been confined, and, 
though thorough search was made for him, he for about 
two weels successfully eluded those who were on his 
track. While Hempstead was at work in the Hart 
ford office one night he suddenly recognized, among 
the clatter of a score of messages passing over the wire, 
a sound which he at once declared was the touch of the 
missing Mike. It proved to' be a message from Wall- 
ingford, and an investigation showed that the Hartford 
operator was quite right in ascribing it to the insane man, 
who was afterward found there, he having dropped into 
the office in the former place, and taken a hand at his 
old business. 

This same ability of distinguishing touch is a means 
of friendly intercourse between operators separated by 
long distances, and who probably have never seen each 
other. Attracted by an influence more subtle than 
the electric fluid itself, lovers have formed their first 
intimacy by this means, and not always with the ill- 
fortune which it appears followed the " Misplaced (Tele- 
graphic) Affection" — shall we say " immortalized," by 
Beta, in a rhyming effusion which first saw the light 
as a contribution to The Telegrapher. 

MISPLACED (TELEGRAPHIC) AFFECTION. 

Thomas To t, telegraphist, ten hours every day 
Labored conscientiously for promises to pay ; 
On the self same circuit, not a thousand miles from T, 
Nancy Anna Wilkins gently jerked the mystic key. 



60 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 

What could be expected when we note their common labors? 
What, when we consider that the two had long been neighbors? 
(Not so near that they had met, but near enough, 'tis true 
Little distances may lend enchantment to a view.) 

What could be expected under all the circumstances, 
But that each should halo each with tender loving fancies? 
But that each in painting each should color each in glory? 
What could be anticipated — save the old, old story? 

She, in his imaginings, lived something light and airy, 
Like " Sweet Home," or cotton wool, a zephyr or a fairy; 
He, in hers, existed something big, bold, loud, defiant, 
Brave as Jack the Killer and as burly as the giant. 

Nancy fell in love with Thomas Tot's manipulation; 

He could take and shake a key to whip the 'tarnal nation; 

He could send — you all must know what merit there was in it — 

Eighty, more or less, and ' ' take " some ninety words per minute. 

Thomas fell in love with Nancy Anna's disposition, 
You yourselves had done the same if placed in his position; 
0, she was — by telegraph — as sweet as Jersey peaches, 
With a knack for simple jokes and sentimental speeches. 

Every week day morning, when the wires were in trim, 

Thomas said g m* to her, and she g m to him; 

Every idle afternoon when business was over, 

Down they sat to have a chat, and thought themselves in clover. 

Many years of this rolled on in regular rotation, 
'Till came round Tom's decaded two weeks' (or less) vacation ; 
So he telegraphed his friend to don her silks and satins, 
For that he would be with her before the morrow's matins. 

Nancy Anna decked herself in everything that glitters, 
Fortified hei female frame with Drake's Plantation Bitters; 
And, too nervous for severer exercise than waiting, 
Let her student run the books and do the operating. 

On the way Tom spent the day a planning out the meeting, 
Setting to the letter e the items of their greeting; 
How to clasp her tiny hand, around the neck to hold her, 
While her dainty, downy cheek reposed upon his shoulder. 

*The telegraphic contraction for "good morning." 



OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 61 

What was his astonishment, when first he stood before her? 
What was her's when first she faced her long, long time adorer? 
His, to find her slim, and grim, and gaunt, and five eleven; 
Hers, to see him old and fat, and barely four feet seven ! 

Cupid's dart might bring its smart e'en to this aged duffer; 
Nancy Anna's spinster heart, though old and tough, could suffer. 
Thus to meet and thus to part, was rough enough for certain; 
Let us drop a briny — and by all means draw the curtain. 

Who of you who read these lines, while plying the bandanna, 
Kecollects her Thomas Tot, or who his Nancy Anna? 
Shall I pass a warning word to point my modest moral? 
Pshaw! what dictumlteaches babes there is no milk in coral? 



MARRIED BY TELEGRAPH. 

On the contrary, maids have been both wooed and 
won by telegraph, and in the year 1874, a minister 
married in the Keokuk, Iowa, office of the Western 
Union Telegraph Company, a couple at Bonaparte, in 
the same State, he performing the ceremony and they 
pronouncing the marriage vow over the wire. Five 
o'clock, April 16th, were the hour and the day fixed for 
the ceremony, and precisely at that time a dispatch was 
sent to Keokuk to the effect that the candidates were at 
the telegraph office in Bonaparte, and ready to proceed. 
The following was then sent: 

"Keokuk, Iowa, April 16th, 1874 
" John Sullivan and Frances Godown, 

Bonaparte, la.: 
"Please join hands and take the pledge. 

"Wm. C. Pratt." 



62 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 

The following is a copy of the pledge which had been 
left with them . 

"You mutually and solemnly promise before God and 
the witnesses present, that you will each take the one 
you hold by the hand to be your lawful and wedded 
companion. That, forsaking all others, you will cleave 
to each other in sickness and in health, and perform all 
the duties of a faithful companion until you are separ- 
ated by death. If to this you agree, send me a mes- 
sage to this effect." 

Then came the response: 

" Bonaparte, April 16th, 1874. 
"Wm. C. Pratt, Keokuk: 

We take the pledge. 

"John Sullivan. 
"Frances Godown." 

The concluding dispatch was then sent as follows: 

"Keokuk, la., April 16th, 1874. 

" John Sullivan and Frances Godown, 

Bonaparte, la. : 

"By authority I pronounce you husband and wife, 
and may God bless you. 

"Wm. C. Pratt." 

The operators all along the line then tendered their 
congratulations to the happy couple upon their mar- 
riage by the lightning process. Managers Dolbear, of 
Keokuk, and Detwiler, of Bonaparte, were the officiating 
telegraphists. This was the first marriage by telegraph, 
so far as there is any record. Several have been so 
celebrated since, and many more, doubtless, will be; 



OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 63 

but we deprecate the insinuation which has been made, 
that divorces will be obtained by the same means. 

HOW AN ABSCONDER WAS CAUGHT. 

Now and then an operator proves himself unworthy 
of the profession, as did a young fellow named D. B. 
Leber, who, at the close of his telegraphic career, got into 
disgrace by stealing a package containing two hundred 
and fifty dollars, from the express agent at Watseka,HL 
where he was employed as operator. He also at the 
same time forwarded to the secretary of the telegraph 
company a package purporting to contain sixty-two dol- 
lars, but which was filled with blank paper. He then 
left by train for Chicago, calculating that as there was 
no other operator at Watseka, he would have time to 
effect his escape. But he was caught by means of an- 
other man there, whose knowledge of telegraphy was ■ 
confined to making the alphabet, but who, upon the 
discovery of the theft, opened the key and sent a mes- 
sage three or four times, to nobody in particular, in- 
forming whoever it might concern that Leber had ske- 
daddled with the cash, as above related. He could read 
nothing that was said to him, and continued to repeat 
his announcement at short intervals, even when other 
offices were engaged in sending messages on the wire, 
until a man was sent there by train to shut him off. His 
timely information, however, resulted in the capture of 
the thief, who was arrested in Chicago, and the money 
recovered. 

The feat of this novice in the art is remindful of what 



64 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 

has been accomplished by defter fingers, if not apter in- 
telligence, than his, in the way of 

WONDERFUL SPEED IN TELEGRAPHING. 

It is stated that no operator of modern times has 
been found to exceed the sending speed of Jo. Fisher, 
of Nashville, to Jimmy Leonard, of Louisville, in 1860 
or 1861. The rate was an average of either fifty-three 
or fifty-four words a minute for ten consecutive min- 
utes. The matter was press report. No better receiver 
than Mr. Leonard, who copied it, has yet been reported. 
A telegram was sent from London to Washington in 
nine minutes and thirty seconds. Two thousand five 
hundred and eighteen words were sent from New York 
to Cleveland in an hour. On the day of Mr. Lincoln's 
funeral, the American Telegraph office in Washington 
transmitted seventy-five thousand words of reports for 
newspapers in New York and elsewhere. All but about 
five thousand of the whole number of words transmit- 
ted were sent after 7 p. m., and it was all through at 
twenty minutes after 1 a. m., being at the rate of twelve 
thousand words per hour. Eight wires were in con- 
stant use, and nine part of the time. All this was ac- 
complished in addition to the large amount of private 
business of the line. About ten thousand words of 
press news in addition were sent by the United States 
line, making a total of eighty-five thousand words sent 
to and paid for by the press of the country in one day 
from Washington alone, at an expense of about three 
thousand dollars. Thirteen thousand six hundred 
words were transmitted by the House printing instru- 
ments on a single wire after half -past 7 o'clock. 



OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 65 

"When, on one occasion, the lines were connected through 
from San Francisco, California, to Heart's Content, 
Newfound land, the terminus of the Atlantic cable, af- 
ter exchange of the usual complimentary messages, at 
twenty-one minutes past 7 a. m., Valentia time, 
a message was started from Valentia for San Francisco, 
passing through Xew York at thirty-five minutes past 
2 p. M-, New York time, and was received in San 
Francisco at twenty-one minutes past 11 i\ vl> San 
Francisco time, and its receipt at once acknowledged. 
The actual time occupied was only two minutes, and the 
distance traversed fourteen thousand miles, though the 
largest distance worked in one circuit was but five 
thousand miles, namely, from San Francisco to Heart's 
Content. Subsequently the operator at San Francisco 
transmitted an eighty-word message to Heart's Con- 
tent direct, occupying three minutes in transmission, 
which was repeated back by the operator at Heart's 
Content in two minutes fifty seconds. 

These wonderful accomplishments remind us of 
Shakspeare's gentle Puck, who, responding to an order 
from ihe fairy king, says : 

"111 put a girdle round about the earth 
In forty minutes." 

THE MESSENGER SERVICE 

has been perfected in Xew York by the American Dis- 
trict Telegraph Company, which employs nearly a thou- 
sand uniformed hoys, none under fourteen years of age. 
They answer summonses at all hours, from over five 
thousand boxes, in dwelling-houses, stores, etc., in all 



66 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 

parts of the city. The various uses to which the mes- 
sengers are put are remarkable. Of late there has arisen 
a demand for escorts to places of amusement, and from 
one house to another. The former has become a regular 
practice. One evening recently there were eight ladies 
at six different theatres whose escorts were furnished 
"to order/' Men as well as women employ escorts for 
various purposes. Most people who require the services 
of the messengers are strangers, who wish for guides to 
show them the "sights." Another use that is made of 
the District Telegraph messengers is to attend children, 
particularly girls, to and from school. Cases are not 
unknown where a messenger has been summoned and 
sent in search of a missing husband, who was supposed 
to be at one of his favorite haunts. It is not an un- 
common thing for a messenger to be sent home with an 
intoxicated person. Messenger boys and men are also 
extensively employed as detectives for various purposes. 
Special messengers, or men or boys in plain clothes, are 
assigned to special duty as "spotters." of suspected 
clerks in stores, and they are said to have done excel- 
lent work. In fact, detective duty appears peculiarly 
adapted to those in the messenger service. Another 
use which has been found for messenger boys is the 
paying by proxy of New Year's calls. They are also 
employed as ushers at fashionable weddings, and as 
" managers " of the arrangements for carriages on such 
occasions. The books of the company show the services 
for which the boys have been required, and many laugh- 
able records are to be seen. One boy was detailed to 
take care of a lady's poodle, for which he was paid thirty 



OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 67 

cents an hour. An escort was required to attend to the 
theatre a lady whose husband was to " come later." A 
young man was once telegraphed for in order to bring 
a bumptious servant to terms. During political cam- 
paigns the boys are employed extensively to distribute 
documents. Car-drivers, and, indeed, all classes of 
people who have to get up very early in the morning, 
are peculiarly dependent upon the messenger-boy sys- 
tem. The books also show that the messenger boys 
have been used to order dinners, to buy all kinds of 
liquors, to do shopping for women, to pay bills of all 
amounts, and even to borrow umbrellas. Not un- 
frequently boys are sent to pawn-brokers' shops with 
articles. 

THE TELEGRAPH MESSENGER. 

There is perhaps no person who sees more of the 
different phases of human nature than the messenger 
connected with the regular telegraph companies. He 
is hailed at one door with anxious, enthusiastic joy; at 
another with superstitious dread, and at another with 
an impatient nervousness, which has the effect of mak- 
ing the person to whom the telegram is addressed, 
snatch a leaf from the receipt book instead of tearing 
open the envelope of the doubtful message. 

The messenger rings the door-bell of Mr. Jones' resi- 
dence. Mr. Jones attends the call. On seeing the 
messenger present the telegram, he hurriedly tears off 
the wrapper and proceeds to read it over and over, and 
finally asks: 

" Is this for me?" 

" It seems to be your address/' 



68 



OPEEATORS AND MESSENGERS. 



"Where will the marriage ceremony be performed?' 
" I don't know, sir, anything about it; please sign and 
let me go." 

" Oh! it's a telegram! I must tell ury wife." And 
the door abruptly closes in the face of the messenger. 
On his route the messenger stops to deliver a dis- 
patch to Mrs. Spilkins. The family are at dinner. 
" Bridget, who rang ?" 

"Missis, it's for you." And Bridget hands her the 
telegram. A shriek, and she falls backward, her lips 
faintly murmuring "telegram!" After sufficiently re- 
covering, she remarks: "I told you, Mr. Spilkins, about 
the dreadful dream Mrs. Smith had last week " 

" Oh ! poor Jane — when will the funeral take place ? % 
"And her poor children — oh! how can I bear if?" 
"Mr. Spilkins, you wicked man, how can you smile 
while you read it ?" 

Mr. Spilkins commences reading aloud : 
"Petersburg, December 1st." 
"Oh ! Mr. Spilkins, don't read it to me— " 
He continues : " Dear Mother — " 
"And did she write it before she died?" 
" Dear mother, all well. I and the children will be 
over on the early train to-morrow." 

" Ah ! I knew it was no bad news ; but I am always 
so nervous about a telegram." 

A MESSENGER MISTAKEN FOR A POLICEMAN. 

A story is told which suggests that the blue coats 
and decorations have led to the supposition that the 
wearers are policemen in miniature. A short time ago 



OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 69 

a boy was sent with a telegram for a son of the Emerald 
Isle, whose name was Mulligan. The woman of the 
house came to the door, in answer to his summons, and, 
seeing his uniform, surmised at once that her Pat had 
been cutting up some of his shines again, and resolved 
to save him from the lock-up at all hazards. " Does 
Patrick Mulligan live here?" "Indade, sir! me Pat 
was drafted into the army, an' sure an* he's gone way off, 
an 1 1 dont know where he is, at all." "Well! here's a 
jtelegram for him." "A telegram ! fhat 's that ?" "Why, 
it's a dispatch — a message." "Do yees mane a tele 
'graf dispatch, something like a letther V "That's it, 
'exactly." "Is that all? Faith, an' if you'll be afther 
goin' over forninst the grocery ye 'll find him there 
smoking his pipe on the stooj}. I took yees for a cop." 
Thus much of operators and their useful allies. 



70 THE TELEGRAPH Itf WAB. 



THE TELEGEAPH IN WAR 

In the introductory chapter we showed how, cen- 
turies before the Christian era, as dated in records 
which are considered authentic, signaling by fire was 
employed as a means of advantage in military oper- 
ations, and that the comparatively clumsy signaling ar- 
rangements in use just previously to the introduction 
of the electric telegraph, had one of their principal oc- 
cupations in communicating military doings and events. 

In general, it may be stated that sun-signaling, which 
is, of course, only practicable in day-time, has advan- 
tages over all other methods of visual telegraphy. 
Messages can be transmitted to great distances, 
and the clearness with which the signals can be made 
renders background of but little importance, while in 
flag-signaling the distinctness of the signal depends 
materially on this question. 

At the present time all the armies of the civilized 
world are provided, while engaged in actual campaign- 
ing, with a field telegraphic system, more or less 
efficient, besides availing themselves of local and exist- 
ent means of lightning communication wherever prac- 
ticable. Telegraphy in war was never employed to 
equal advantage and with greater perfection than by 
the Prussians in the campaign of 1870-1; but in our 
own country, the world witnessed its most gigantic 
operation. 

Before giving an account, and a necessarily brief one. 



TBn TELEGKAPH IN WAR. 71 

of the extent and value of the telegraph in the Ameri- 
can civil war, a general sketch of its employment in 
military operations may not be out of place. 

FIELD TELEGRAPHY. 

The English army, it is said, was the first to use it. In 
the Crimean war their trenches and batteries before Se- 
bastopol were traversed and connected by lines of tele- 
graph. The French soon followed their example, and 
constructed a similar system in their own lines, while, 
Later on, a cable laid across the Black Sea put the 
armies in the field in direct communication with Paris 
and London. Since that time a regular telegraph 
corps has been organized in every European army. 
The field telegraph was used by the French in Italy in 
1859, and in their campaigns against the Kabyles in 
Algeria ; and in America both the Federals and Confed- 
erates made free use of permanent and temporary lines 
during the War of Secession, the Southern cavalry, in 
particular, displaying great daring and enterprise in 
riding round the Hanks of the Federal armies, seizing 
their telegraph lines, sending false messages to the 
Northern generals, and then cutting the line and retiring 
as rapidly and secretly as they came. It was, however, 
as before stated, in the Prussian army, and in the great 
campaigns of 1864, 1866 and 1870-71 that military tele- 
graphy attained its greatest development ; and after the 
experience of these three wars, the Prussian telegraph 
corps is probably the most efficient in Europe. 

The object of the field telegraph is to keep the head- 



72 THE TELEGEAPH W WAR. 

quarters of an army in communication with its several 
corps, and at the same time with the general telegraph 
system of the country. The line may be either an 
aerial or a ground wire, or a combination of both, the 
former being stretched on poles, while the latter is 
insulated by being enclosed in a light cable, about half 
an inch thick, and laid along by the roadsides or across 
the fields. 

Where there is an extensive telegraph system in 
operation, all that is necessary is to connect the head- 
quarters of the army with the nearest point on a per 
manent telegraph line, and in most European countries 
any army in the field would seldom, if ever, be more 
than ten miles from such a line. Ten miles of the field 
telegraph can easily be erected in half a day ; indeed, 
the Austrian engineers assert that on favorable ground 
they could do the work in two hours. In most cases, 
of course, the advancing army would have to repair the 
permanent lines which would be partially destroyed by 
the retreating forces, and in this way twenty-five miles 
of wire were often erected by the Prussians in a single 
day. As soon as an army moves forward, the field tele- 
graph line previously erected is taken down, while a 
fresh line is laid from the new head-quarters to the 
nearest permanent telegraph. This is done with a view 
to economizing the material, an enormous amount of 
which would have to be carried with the army, if the 
lines it left behind it in its advance were not removed, 
and the poles, wire and insulators employed in their 
construction again utilized. 

The conducting wires erf the military telegraphs 



THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 



73 



which are used by the French army, are so made as to 
be capable of resisting the trampling of hortes and the 
crushing of wheels of the heaviest vehicles on com- 
mon roads, though not that of artillery or of a railway 
train. 

INTERRUPTIONS AND WIRE " TAPPING " BY THE ENEMY. 

While the field telegraph affords a commander a rapid 
and certain medium of communication with his base of 
operations and the various corps of his army, it must 
be remembered that it is one which is continually liable 
to interruption by an enterprising enemy. Wherever 
a general has to contend with an army well provided 
with good cavalry, he will find it extremely difficult to 
protect his telegraph lines from being destroyed by 
daring raids of his opponents. There are several easy 
ways of making a telegraph line temporarily useless. 
The simplest and most obvious method is to pull down 
the poles and cut the wires into pieces ; but when this 
,is done the damage is easily detected, and the repairs 
at once commenced. The interruption will, therefore, 
be far more serious if it can be effected in a way which 
will not permit of its exact locality being so readily dis- 
covered. This can be done by cutting the wire, intro- 
ducing a piece of gutta percha or any other non-con- 
ducting substance into the course of the circuit, and 
connecting the ends of the wire with it, so as to give it 
the appearance of one of the ordinary joints or splices 
of the line. At the same time a few poles can be pulled 
down in another place, and the wires cut, and the prob- 



74 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 

ability is that the engineers who repair the line will not 
discover the hidden interruption of the circuit un- 
til after they have restored the gap, and found that the 
wire is still cut somewhere else; and even then the place 
where the non-conducting substance is introduced will 
not be discovered until some time has been employed 
in carefully testing the line with the galvanometer. 

But there are other dangers to telegraphic communi- 
cation in the field besides the mere damage to the line. 
If the enemy's cavalry get possession of a station, they 
can easily send messages containing false information 
or delusive orders to well-known officers of the oppos- 
ing force, while the place from which they are sent and 
the assumed name in which they are dispatched, will 
give the messages an appearance of authenticity which, 
if it does not completely deceive the recipient, will at 
least be the cause of considerable doubt and perplexity 
to him, and, perhaps, make him hesitate to accept the 
accurate information or authentic orders received from 
other sources. Again — even without occupying a station 
it is possible to read the messages which are passing 
along a telegraph line, and thus perhaps discover im- 
portant secrets. All that is required for this purpose 
is a small portable receiving instrument and a few yards 
of copper wire to connect it with the line. A single in- 
dividual thus equipped can "tap" a telegraph line and 
read whatever messages may be passing over it. 

These dangers, however, are only of a partial or tem- 
porary character. By carefully patrolling and testing 
the line, it cannot be interrupted for any length of time 
without the damage being observed and repaired. By 



THE TELEGRAPH IN WAS. 75 

adopting a secret arrangement that there shall be a cer- 
tain number of letters in the two or three words at the 
beginning or end of every message, a dispatch sent by 
an enemy can in most cases be detected. And, again, 
by employing a cipher alphabet, it will be difficult for 
any one who taps the line to obtain information from 
the messages which fall into his hands. 

FIRING GUNS BY ELECTRICITY. 

Electricity is now applied in the firing of artillery, an 
improvement introduced by Mr. M'Kinlay, at Woolwich, 
England, in the year 1856, when the "galvanic tube" 
was invented. In this tube a steel or platinum wire 
is embedded in a charge of powder, and this wire forms 
a link in the circuit of a galvanic battery. The retard 
ation of the current, due to the inferior conducting 
power of the steel or platinum wire, causes it to be 
raised to a red heat, and by this means the powder is 
exploded. This system was in use until 1862, when 
the Abel "electric tube" was invented. In this the 
steel wire is replaced by a priming charge, consisting 
of subphosphide and subsulphide of copper, with a 
little chlorate of potash, and in this composition the 
terminals of the two insulated copper wires that con- 
duct the etectric current are embedded. The points of 
the wires are about one sixteenth of an inch apart. 

A later innovation in military matters is the introduc- 
tion of the electric light for the purpose of illuminating 
camps, which has been successfully adopted by Eng- 
lish volunteers. 



76 THE TELEGEAPH IN WAR. 

Experiments recently made go to show that the tele- 
phone will probably also prove a valuable adjunct in 
military operations. 

But to our civil war, which affords much interesting 
material whose insertion is forbidden by lack of space. 

the crvrL WAR. 

General Sherman has written: "For the rapid trans- 
mission of orders in an army covering a large space of 
ground, the magnetic telegraph is far the best, though 
usually the paper and pencil, with good mounted or- 
derlies, answer every purpose. I have little faith in 
the signal service by nags and torches (though we al- 
ways used them), because almost invariably when they 
were most needed the view was cut off by intervening 
trees or by mists and fogs. There was one notable in- 
stance in my experience, however, when the signal flags 
carried a message of vital importance over the heads of 
Hood's army, which had interposed between me and 
Altoona and broken the telegraph wires— as recorded 
in my ' Recollections ;' but the value of the magnetic 
telegraph in war cannot be exaggerated, as was illus- 
trated by the perfect concert of action between the 
armies in Virginia and in Georgia in all 1864. Hardly a 
day intervened when General Grant did not know the 
exact state of facts with me, more than 1,500 miles off as 
the wires ran. On the field a thin insulated wire 
may be run on improvised stakes, or from tree to tree, 
for six or more miles in a couple of hours, and I have 
seen operators so skillful that by cutting the wire they 



THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 77 

would receive a message from a distant station with 
their tongues. As a matter of course the ordinary com- 
mercial wares along the railways form the usual tele- 
graph lines for an army, and these are easily repaired 
and extended as the army advances, but each army and 
wing should have a small corps of skilled men to put 
up the field wire and take it down when done. This is 
far better than the signal flags and torches. Our com- 
mercial telegraph lines will always supply for war 
enough skillful operators." 

ORIGIN OF THE U. S. MILITARY TELEGRAPH. 

On the occasion of the riots in Baltimore, April 19th, 
1861, the rebels, by destroying railroads, burning 
bridges, and tearing down lines of telegraph, succeeded 
in cutting off all communication between Washington 
and the loyal States. 

The object was to prevent reinforcements from reach- 
ing Washington, so that the rebel leaders might con- 
centrate their forces on the banks of the Potomac and 
demand the surrender of the Capital before the Gov- 
ernment could summon sufficient aid to its defense. 

The work of rebuilding the destroyed property was 
intrusted to Colonel Thomas A. Scott, the well-known 
late president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Under 
his direction the rails were soon relaid, bridges rebuilt, 
and new telegraph wire erected. 

A party of four telegraph operators was organized in 
Pennsylvania, April 25th, 1861, and at once started for 
Washington, which city they reached by a circuitous 



78 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 

route on the 27th. This quartet formed the nucleus of 
the United States Military Telegraph, many operators 
from different parts of the country being afterward 
added. 

COST OF THE SERVICE DURING THE WAR. 

During the Rebellion there were constructed and 
operated about 15,000 miles of military telegraph. The 
cost of the service from May 1st, 1861, to Dec. 1, 1862. 
was about $22,000 per month. During the year 1863 
it averaged $38,500 per month. In 1864, the telegraph 
was greatly extended, and the cost reached $93,500 per 
month. The total expenditure during the year ending 
June 30th, 1865, was $1,360,000; and the total expend- 
iture from May 1st, 1861, to June 30th, 1865, footed 
up $2,655,500. 

THE DUTIES OF CIPHER OPERATORS. 

Throughout the war the cipher operators connected 
with the United States Military Telegraph, under Gen- 
erals Eckert and Stager, were at all army headquarters. 
Their duties were confidential and very important, inas- 
much as ah military movements ordered by General 
Grant were transmitted through them. They were in 
possession of intended army and navy expeditions 
sometimes weeks before commenced, and, had they not 
been patriotic and truly loyal, could have defeated the 
Union armies and delayed then- final triumph. These 
quiet, unassuming gentlemen were very poorly paid, 
and frequently not well provided for. However, they 
did not complain of their hardships, but worked on 



THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 79 

faithfully until the Eebellion was crushed. The oper- 
ators, it may be added, were not commissioned, nor 
even borne on the army rolls, and having no discharges 
from the service, will not be remembered by the coun- 
try and their valuable services acknowledged like offi- 
cers and soldiers. They, however, did their duty 
nobly, as did also the operators employed in less re- 
sponsible positions. The telegraphic service employed 
in the war received some official recognition of their 
patriotic services in the honor done a few of their re- 
presentative men, in accordance with the following 
communication, which speaks for itself: 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MERITORIOUS SERVICES RENDERED THE 
GOVERNMENT. 



■i 



Office U. S. Military Telegraph, 

War Department, Washington, 
July 31, 1866. 

D. H. Bates, assistant manager department of the 
Potomac. 

Charles A. Tinker, chief operator, war department. 

Albert B. Chandler, cipher and disbursing clerk, war 
department. 

A. H. Caldwell, chief operator, army of the Potomac. 

Dennis Doren, superintendent of construction, depart- 
ment of the Potomac. 

Frank Stewart, cipher clerk, war department. 

George W. Baldwin, cipher clerk, war department. 

Richard O'Brien, chief operator, department of North 
Carolina. 

George D. Sheldon, chief operator, Fortress Monroe, Va. 



80 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 

M. V. B. Buell, chief operator, Delaware and Eastern 

shore Line. 
John H. Emerick, chief operator, army of the James. 

Gentlemen : — I have been instructed by the secretary 
of war to present t3 each of you one of the silver watches 
which were purchased and used to establish uniform 
time in the army of the Potomac, marked "U. S. Mili- 
tary Telegraph," as an acknowledgment of the meritor- 
ious and valuable services you have rendered to the 
government during the war, while under my direction, 
as an employe of the United States Military Telegraph. 

It gives me great pleasure to comply with these 
instructions, and I take this occasion to thank you, for 
myself, for your faithful performance of the important- 
trusts which have been confided to you in the various 
capacities in which you have served, and especially as 
"cipher operators." 

Tours, very truly, 

Thomas' T. Eckert, 
Ass't Secy of War, and Sup't U. S. Mil. Tel. 

AN OPERATOR'S READY WIT. 

Instances well nigh innumerable could be given of 
the ingenuity manifested by operators under circum- 
stances of danger, and which, as in the one here cited, 
proved of great value to the patriotic cause. When the 
rebel General Morgan made his great raid through In- 
diana and Ohio he captured a Union operator, and com- 
pelled him to telegraph, in General Lew Wallace's 



THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 



81 



name, to Cincinnati, asking how many regular troops 
were in that city. Morgan read by "sound," and there- 
fore the operator did not dare to intimate that he was 
under duress, and could only venture to add an extra 
initial to his own signature. The receiving operator at 
Cincinnati knew that Morgan was in that neighbor- 
hood, and suspecting, from the extra initial letter, that- 
all was not right, replied, greatly exaggerating the 
force of regulars ; and the consequence was that Mor- 
gan changed his route to a circuit of twenty miles be- 
yond the city, and thus saved it from a sack, and the 
probable loss of millions of dollars. 

HEROIC COURAGE OF AN OPERATOR. 

Great Falls was a Union picket post, where Federal 
troops watched rebel movements on the Virginia side 
of the Potomac. The well-known telegrapher, since 
deceased, Ed. Conway, a Canadian, was government 
operator. One afternoon the United States pickets 
were withdrawn. The rebels thought it was a good 
opportunity to try the range of their guns; so, c omin g 
in, a considerable number of them began to fire away 
at the telegraph building, wherein Conway was bewail- 
ing the condition of his finances. Shells flew thick and 
fast around the building — steps and porch were soon 
blown away, but the plucky telegrapher heeded it not. 
They mixed a volley of musketry with the firing of 
shell, but this only caused him to gather up his three 
cents and a button, place them in his pocket, and 
whistle "Johnny went for a soger." A quantity of 
6 



82 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 

bullets came unceremoniously into his room, and as 
unceremoniously as they had come in he went to work 
digging them out of the partition, to be saved as tro- 
phies. Only when the rebels began crossing the river 
did he consider it worth while to seek other quarters. 
Such courage has rarely been equalled, even by men 
accustomed to the vicissitudes of war. 

NERVOUS OPERATORS. 

On the night of May 23d, 1861, the night before the 
occupation of Alexandria by the Federal troops, the 
Union operators at the Chain Bridge, Woodhouse and 
Jacques, seeing a great stir among the soldiery, 
imagined at once that preparations were being made 
for a retreat instead of a victorious advance, and 
at once telegraphed to Mr. Strouse, the superin- 
tendent, that something was up, and, fearing a retreat, 
they had no means of escape unless he immediately 
sent them two horses. Danger was at hand, and he 
alone could protect them from an infuriated enemy; 
their lives should be at his disposal if the necessary 
protection was forthcoming. The horses were not 
sent, however, nor were their lives sacrificed; on the 
contrary, they are living to-day. 

A FUNNY WAR STORY. 

"Agitator" told a good story in The Telegrapher, 
how that during the early part of the month of Novem- 
ber, 1863, General Sherman, then commanding the 15th 



THE TELEGRAPH IN WAB. 88 

Army Corps, was making a forced march across the 
country from Memphis to Chattanooga, Tenn., to sup- 
port Gen. Rosecrans, who had been partially defeated 
at Stone River. Upon reaching Elk River the telegraph 
and cipher operator attached to General Sherman's 
staff received orders to proceed to Decherd, Tenn., the 
nearest telegraph office, seventy-five miles distant; send 
important military dispatches to General Grant at Chat- 
tanooga, receive replies, and hasten back to meet the 
corps' advance. One hundred of the 3d regular cavalry 
were detached as an escort, and on the third of Novem- 
ber set forth. As this mission was important, no time 
was lost on the march, although the roads were in a 
terribly muddy condition, and great caution had to be 
observed against surprise by Confederate bushwhackers. 
Fast riding and muddy roads do not add much to the 
outward appearance of man or beast, and by the time 
Decherd was reached the staff operator presented about 
as sorry an appearance as could well be imagined. 

The operator pulls up in front of the telegraph office 
about four o'clock one very rainy afternoon. Entering, 
he is greeted with the familiar click. There, in a little 
eight by ten pen, laboriously at work trying to "break" 
some obstinate "plug," less experienced in telegraphy 
than himself, sits that nervous, mischievous little sprite, 
Jimmy Lowe, the operator. Jimmy is not in the best 
of humor at this particular time, and dislikes to be in- 
terrupted "when in for a fight." 

Thinking he is a student, our friend inquires if the 
operator is in, accompanying the inquiry by an awkward 
movement. "Yes, I am the operator. "What do you 
want?" 



84 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 

Now, the chance for a good practical joke could not 
be resisted by our horseman, therefore he quickly 
decides to have a little fun at Jimmy's expense. 

""What sort of a clicking affair is that 'arT' 
he enquired, pointing to the register, with its pon- 
derous weight and paper tape. 

" That is the telegraph," says Jimmy, "and I am 
the operator. Do you want to send a message ? If 
not, don't bother me, but go and get some of that 
mud off from you." Jimmy turns away with a look of 
disgust, and proceeds to renew his battle over the 
wire. It will here be proper to state that Jimmy kept 
a sutler's stand on a small scale in one corner of the 
office, and, as he afterward acknowledged, was suspi- 
cious that our friend had an eye on a quantity of plug 
tobacco behind the counter. 

After a great many questions relative to the modus 
operandi, all of which worked Jimmy's nerves up to a 
percejutible tremble, our staff man concluded to bring 
the matter to a focus. 

" See here, stranger, p'rhaps I kin help yer. Just 
let me in thar, will yer? That tarnel clatter has 
been agoing on long enough. You won't, eh ?" With 
one stride he clears the board railing and brings up 
by Jimmy's side, with open mouth gaping at the 
instrument. 

Jimmy is stormed in his stronghold; confounded, 
and not knowing what to say, prudently says nothing. 
He, however, involuntarily drops his hold of the key, 
and has half a mind to close in with his muddy tor- 
mentor, but does not. Mr. Cavalry-man sidles around 



THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 85 

and gets hold of the key. Jimmy is now nearly fran- 
tic; visions of Confederates in disguise flit through 
his mind, and he looks around for chances of escape. 
He can read just enough by sound to know that our 
friend has given a signal for precedence over the wire. 
He hears him "call" Chattanooga; he hears Ch. 
answer. Oh, if he could only get hold of the key now 
and warn Ch. of danger. He knows our muddy friend 
is a Confederate operator in disguise. It is now his 
turn to stare with gaping mouth. 

Our friend coolly transmits the dispatches, politely 
calls for pen, ink and blanks, and receives the long 
replies without a break, and without using the paper 
tape. Jimmy cannot make out the purport of what is 
going on over the wire, and our friend, by hiding the 
blanks with his hand while receiving, keeps him in the 
dark. All is soon finished. The dispatches are folded? 
placed in an inner pocket ; and with many thanks for 
the courtesy extended, our friend retires from the 
office, mounts his stalwart steed, and is soon cantering 
off to meet his general. It afterward came to light 
that Decherd asked Chattanooga some queer questions 
over the wire soon after the " raid." 

ANOTHER, 

which came from Jefferson City, Missouri, tells that 
during the reign of terror in the county distinguished 
by including that city within its limits, caused by 
Price's raid, the depot at Jefferson City caught fire 
and was burned. Consequently, the operator was 
obliged to find other rooms for the telegraph office, 



86 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 

and, for want of better, located temporarily in Dad 
Chevron's carpenter shop. One day, during the 
absence of the operator, all the instruments com- 
menced and for fifteen minutes kept up a terrible 
ticking, which frightened the old man, who had not 
made the science of electricity the great study of his 
life. He thought it must be a call for his office, and 
probably conveyed new 7 s of Price and his forces. 
Making a dive for one of the instruments, he caught 
the " ground-wire " firmly between his teeth, and 
shrieked out: " Operator's gone to dinner; be back in 
half an hour!" and at the same instant received a shock 
from the wire coming into contact with his moist 
tongue that he will remember to his dying day. 

POOR QUARTERS FOR TELEGRAPHERS. 

When Operators Lathrop and Maize went to open the 
office at Langleys, Va., for the use of General Smith's 
division, they found that no provision had been made 
for them, and accordingly went to General Smith to 
have him point out their location. The general eyed 
them for a few minutes with a scrutiny w T orthy of a 
Bow street detective, and then made a reconnoissance 
for a proper location. After a faithful survey of half 
an hour, he espied an old shed, raised some feet from 
the ground, in the basement of which were some 
horses, cows and pigs, and above these a room in 
which the cook kept his poultry. This latter apart- 
ment he ordered to be divided by a partition, one side 
to be occupied by the operators, the other for poultry. 

A PROVIDENT OPERATOR. 

During the war operators suffered their share of 



THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR 87 

the discomforts and hardships incident to campaign- 
ing. The young gentleman immortalized in the 
following story had an eye to future necessities in 
his preparations ; and who will blame him ? 

Two days after the battle of Ball's Bluff (October 
21, 1861), wherein the Union troops were repulsed 
and Colonel E. D. Baker, the patriotic senator, was 
killed, a telegraph office was opened at Edward's 
Ferry, on the upper Potomac. Mr. Tinker and a 
white-haired youth named Burnker were sent to the 
office to "do" the telegraphic honors. The office was 
located in a hut, vacated but a short time prior to 
their arrival by a lame contraband. Two days only 
did the office remain at the Ferry, for no sooner did 
General Banks, with his column, leave there and return 
to his former headquarters, near Darnestown, Mary- 
land, than the boys thought that " discretion was the 
better part of valor," and, turning their backs to the 
enemy, pulled up traps and made the best time on 
record in rejoining General Banks. 

Burnker, when preparing to leave home to join the 
TJ. S. Military Telegraph, wisely foresaw that circum 
stances might occasion his being sent to some distant 
camp where forage for telegraphers would not be sup- 
plied by the quartermasters, and filled a trunk with 
eatables. Arriving in Washington, he found it neces- 
sary to make his way to Edward's Ferry, and, having 
no means for their transport, to leave his commissary 
stores behind him. Being absent ten days, and no 
prospect of being able to have his provision sent him, 
he requested one of the operators in Washington to 



88 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 

open the trunk and take care of the contents. The 
trunk being opened, disclosed to the gaze of the hun- 
gry opener seven pounds of pound-cake, six pounds of 
fruit-cake, one peck of apples, half a bushel of chest- 
nuts, a bologna sausage, a head of cabbage, and six 
turnips. On the fact becoming known that he was 
such an excellent provider, the position of quartermaster 
and commissary of the corps was tendered him ; but, 
possessing the modesty for which all telegraphers are 
proverbial, he respectfully declined the position. 

THE END RICHMOND TAKEN- 

No message ever sent by telegraph was of so much 
national interest as the one which William E. Kettles, 
an operator in the service of the government at the 
war department in Washington (at the present writing 
on the staff of the Boston, Mass., Western Union main 
office), received from Richmond on the morning of the 
3d of April, 1865. Mr. Kettles, then a mere boy of fif- 
teen, was working the Fortress Monroe and City 
Point wire at Washington. Shortly after 9.30, the 
Washington and Cherrystone operators were engaged 
on a long message, when suddenly both men were 
taken aback by what seemed to be a most foolish de- 
mand from Fortress Monroe : " Turn down for Rich- 
mond, quick ! " Had a flash of lightning struck 
through the walls at that moment, the shock could not 
have been greater than it was on the jjart of every 
man in the room. 

There was great alacrity in turning down the adjust- 



THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 89 

ment. There were trembling fingers while it was being 
done, and there was a gathering around of many oper- 
ators, with curiosity, suspense, and impatience com- 
bined, to see what it meant. Sure enough ! the signals 
from the operator in Richmond to the operator in 
Washington were bounding along the line. No signal 
was ever answered more promptly. Then came the 
question : 

" Do you get me well ? " 

" I do ; go ahead ! " 

"All right. Here's the first message for four years:" 

"Richmond, Va., April 3d, 1865. 

" Hon. E. 31. Stanton, Secretary of War : 

" We entered Richmond at 8 o'clock this morning. 

" G. Weitzel, 
" Brigadier-General Commanding.." 

Mr. Kettles concedes that he copied the message, 
but he could never tell how. He remembered starting 
up from his chair and upsetting inkstand and instru- 
ment ; of kicking over a tin that sat at the fire-place, in 
order to make a noise ; of rushing for General Eckert's 
room, where sat President Lincoln and Mr. Tinker, the 
cipher clerk, talking in a low tone. As Kettles was 
about to hand the message to Mr. Tinker, the President 
caught sight of the body words, and, with one motion 
and two strides, message and President were out of 
sight on the way to Secretary Stanton's room. Mr. 
Tinker and everybody else were dumbfounded. Ket- 



90 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 

ties quietly returned to his instrument, walking like 
one in a dream ; proceeded mechanically to turn the 
inkstand right side up, and to straighten up his over- 
turned machine. Then he sat down in his chair, and 
stared before him in blank amazement. Around him 
were the other operators, every man alike flustered, and 
unable to get their minds back to their work, or to utter 
connected words. 

In less than one-quarter of the time it takes to write 
this, the operating room was filled with officers and 
sub-officers. President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton 
came in and shook hands with every one in the room 
and then every one in the room shook hands with one 
another, and then with the President and Secretary 
again. Then they all crowded around the Fortress Mon- 
roe instrument, hungry for more news. Kettles sat at 
his instrument while questions were showered in on 
him from every mouth. He was asked more questions 
in those ten minutes than he will be likely to be ever 
asked again in that space of time. At last the inform- 
ation came that Richmond had disconnected itself for 
the present. All retired to General Eckert's room ex- 
cept Mr. Tinker and Kettles, who stood by the window 
endeavoring to hear themselves think. Neither of them 
had drawn a perceptible breath for ten minutes. Out- 
side were the broad grounds of the department build- 
ings. Looking from the operating-room window the 
prospect was clear ; not a single person was to be seen. 
Suddenly a Georgetown horse-car appeared in the dis- 
tance. On it came at the usual rate. Near the build- 
ing it stopped. A man got off, and started with slow, 



THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 91 

leisurely steps up the center walk to the door. Inside 
the operating room the thrilled operators looked out 
on his slow, steady pace, and could scarcely contain 
themselves at his unconcern. He was meditating — ac- 
tually meditating — as though there was nothing to 
throw off his hat for and cheer till he was hoarse. 
Keeping on, he presently lifted his head and looked at 
the window. Ti nk er was there and knew him. 

"Any news ? " he casually inquired. 

Tinker leaned far out of the window : " Richmond's 
fallen ! " he said. 

No tongue can describe the features of that man 
while he was coming to himself. He turned red and 
white by turns, till, suddenly realizing the meaning of 
the words, he waved his arms, then turned and ran. 
Down the street he ran, spreading the news to every 
one he met. Soon there was a great crowd. The ex- 
citement rose ; the people seemed almost mid. The 
"War Department was soon besieged. Outside was a 
multitude. Inside were excited officers, clerks, opera- 
tors, and an excited President. The outsiders looked 
in at the insiders, and the insiders looked out at the 
outsiders. Questions came hot and fast from the mul- 
titude, and answers were shouted back from every man 
who could get his head to one of the two windows. 
The .crowd got the news fairly in its mind and then 
seemed to want three cheers. The three became four. 
Then they wanted speeches. They got them. Half a 
dozen speeches were under way in less than that many 
minutes. Some were good ones. Andrew Johnson 
was there. He was saying : " God bless the old flag! 
If I was President of the United States " 



92 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 

At this point something exciting occurred. Secre- 
tary Stanton entered the operating-room leaning on 
General Eckert's arm. General Eckert pointed out to 
him the boy who had received the message. They 
were formally introduced. The next moment Kettles 
found himself seized by the secretary and held at arm's 
length out of the window above the crowd. The secre- 
tary called to the crowd that this was the young man 
who had received the dispatch of the fall of Eichmond. 
The crowd wanted a speech from him. Kettles gave 
them a speech in a few words, appropriate and pointed, 
for he was in the humor. 

Then followed other scenes. Fire-engines were 
brought out — anything to make a noise. In the even- 
ing the city was ablaze with illuminations. Kettles, 
who is now an operator in Boston, says he can never 
forget how Father Abraham started for Secretary Stan- 
ton's door after receiving the dispatch — hop, skip, and 
jump — shouting : " Clear the track ! " 

THE ASSASSINATION. 

Joy, however, was speedily turned into mourning. A 
writer in the Albany Evening Journal eloquently tells 
the story of the great crime of April 14th, 1865, which 
plunged the nation into grief unutterable : 

" One calm night in the spring time, when the silver 
stars were gleaming out pensively, and scarcely a foot- 
fall on the pavement of Broadway or State street broke 
the stillness that reigned, the cupola-man on the City 
Hall had intoned the midnight hour, and added : All's 
well,' when a sudden, nervous call of ' rep, rep,' aroused 
all on the line from Washington to the red mans home 



THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 93 

in the far west, and to the southwest, where the green 
grass waved in luxuriance, and the little birds twittered 
their matin songs from among the boughs of blossom- 
ing trees, as well as to the icy fastnesses of Halifax and 
the Canadas — to all alike came the harrowing words: 
' 'Tis rumored that the President was shot at the thea- 
ter to-night ! ' How our hearts seemed rent asunder, 
and the great tears swelled up to the eyes that for 
years previous were strangers to such outward expres- 
sions of sorrow. Soon after another message came, 
saying : ' Suppress that rumor sent you ; it's all false.' 
What muttered threats and words followed one an- 
other over the wire to headquarters after the reception 
of this latter will never be known but to those in at- 
tendance that sad and fatal night. Again all was quiet, 
and the clock ticked away the moments, and the hands 
sped around to the morning hours, when ' rep,' rep* 
was again sounded, and the brass instruments clicked 
out an ' official, ' giving the whole dark and bloody 
tragedy of the assassination of the lamented President. 
Sad and wan w^as the face of our little report-boy, 
'Patsey,' as he handed into the offices of the morning 
papers the heart-rending account; and nervously the 
hands of the weary compositors picked up the letters 
that, set into form, recorded the assassination of Pres- 
ident Lincoln on the evening of April 14th, 1865." 

THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR. 

We shall conclude this chapter with two reminis- 
cences of the struggle of 1870-1, the first reflecting 



94 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 

glory upon the Prussian arms and, we fear, some dis- 
credit upon our Gallic friends, but the latter redeeming 
this disgrace by the heroism, of a French female operator. 

At Manheim there was lately on exhibition a 
telegraphic apparatus taken from the French, which 
was obtained in the following manner: A certain dra- 
goon of the Baden Guards, by name Muench, with two 
of his comrades, was sent to reconnoitre as far as the 
Vosges. On their entering the village of Raon 
l'Etampe the inhabitants fled in every direction, with 
cries of "The Prussians! the Prussians!" and shut 
themselves up in their houses. Thus left masters of 
the town, the dragoons rode to the town hall and sum- 
moned the mayor. They asked him where the tele- 
graphic bureau was located. He pointed it out, and 
they went to it, and Muench, singly, and in the 
presence of the assembled city council, cut the wires, 
unscrewed the apparatus, and buckled it to his 
saddle. 

The French government has recently conferred the 
military medal upon a young woman named Mdlle 
Dodu, employed in the telegraph office at Pithiviers 
during the war of 1870. Upon the arrival of the Ger 
man forces in that town they at once, as was their 
wont, took possession of the telegraph office, and rele- 
gated Mdlle Dodu, who was in charge, to a room on 
the first floor. The wires passed through this room, 
and Mdlle Dodu managed to tap them and convey the 
information transmitted over them to the sub-prefect. 
In this way she kept the French military authorities cog- 
nizant of the designs and movements of the enemy. 



CABLE TELEGBAPHS. 95 



CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 

We have now come to the greatest triumph, so far, 
in ocean telegraphy — the connecting of the old and 
new worlds by cable, an account of which it may be 
well to precede with a few general remarks on ocean 
telegraphy. 

Previously to the accomplishment of this under- 
taking, which, it will be remembered, was not success- 
ful in the earlier attempts, submarine telegraph cables 
had been laid and worked, but they were of compara- 
tively little length. 

THE ATLANTIC CABLE 

is the one which most interests us Americans, and 
whose importance in business and the affairs of nations 
cannot be over-estimated, especially since duplex work- 
ing has become an accomplished fact. 

THE FIBST SUGGESTION OF AN ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. 

An old periodical contains the following paragraph, 
which is given here as embodying the first idea of tele- 
graphic communication between Europe and this 
continent. 

"Mr. J. B. Lindsay, of Dundee, who is at present 
in Glasgow, propounds a startling theory, that of 
forming an electric telegraph betwixt Great Britain 
and America, without employing submerged wires, or 



( J6 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 

wives of any kind At a meeting in the Athenaeum 
Mr. Lindsay illustrated his method. A large trough 
of salt water was employed, across which he trans- 
mitted the electric current, without any metallic con- 
ductor, the water itself being the only medium of 
communication. Mr. Lindsay explained that he had 
obtained similar results over a breadth of sixty feet of 
water. Some calculations have been made in regard 
to the expense, and Mr. Lindsay computes, according 
to his present information, that the cost of the neces- 
sary battery and land wires to establish a communica- 
tion between England and America would not exceed 
sixty thousand pounds ($300,000)." 

THE ORIGIN OF THE ATLANTIC CABLE. 

The Atlantic cable is said to have originated with 
Cyrus W. Field, and was suggested to him in this 
way: A Roman Catholic bishop of St. Johns. New- 
foundland, Bishop Muloch, advanced the idea that a 
line be built connecting St. John with the mainland, 
and then running a line of fast steamers to the west 
coast of Ireland, thus bringing America within a week 
of Europe. 

In 1852, a Mr. F. N. Gisborne, acting upon this 
suggestion, commenced the erection of a line from 
St. Johns, through four hundred miles of dense 
forests to Cape Ray, there to connect with the inland 
lines. The following year, however, a short cable 
which he had laid gave out, and those who had invest- 
ed money in the concern withheld further support. 



CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 97 

Work had therefore to be suspended. In 1854, 
Mr. Gisborne came to New York, and made the 
acquaintance of Cyrus W. Field, who was much inter- 
ested in the enterprise. 

While studying this subject, and turning over the 
globe in his library, the idea flashed across Mr. Field's 
mind: "Why not carry the line across the ocean f He 
went to St. Johns, Newfoundland, in March, 1854, and 
obtained from the legislature of that colony a charter 
granting an exclusive right for fifty years to establish 
a telegraph from the continent of America to New- 
foundland, and thence to Europe. 

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST ATLANTIC CABLE 
COMPANY. 

On March 10, 1854, articles of association were sign- 
ed. A company of five gentlemen sat in Mr. Field's 
parlor in Gramercy Park, and entered into the project. 
They were Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, Marshall O. 
Roberts, Chandler White, and Cyrus W. Field. Peter 
Cooper became president of the association. Mr. 
White subsequently died, and Wilson G. Hunt took 
his place. Mr. Roberts died on September 11th, 1880. 
The association was called "The New York, Newfound- 
land and London Telegraph Company." The com- 
pany's capital was $1,500,000, of which Mr. Field 
subscribed one fourth. A grant of £50,000 to aid 
the work was secured, as well as fifty square miles of 
public land, with a further grant of fifty more when 
the cable was laid. 



98 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 

It took more than two years to build the land line 
across Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island. "While 
this was being done Mr. Field went to Europe and 
ordered a submarine cable, to connect Cape Ray and 
Cape Breton. This was sent out in 1855, and was lost 
in a gale in an attempt to lay it across the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence. The attempt was successfully renewed 
in 1856. This cable cost $1,000,000. 

LAYING THE CABLE. 

In that year Mr. Field again went to London and 
organized the Atlantic Telegraph Company, to carry 
the line across the ocean. He secured from the 
British and American governments aid in ships, and 
accompanied the expeditions which sailed from Eng- 
land in 1857 and 1858 for the purpose of laying the 
cable across the Atlantic Ocean. Twice the attempt 
failed, in 1857 and again in 1858. The third attempt 
proved successful, and in 1858 telegraphic communica- 
tion was established between England and America. 

In forming the cable, the great object was to com- 
bine lightness with strength. A single strand is 
capable of sustaining a weight of fifteen hundred and 
fifty pounds. The centrifugal force of the cable when 
paying out had to be carefully guarded against. The 
cable issued out of the tanks at the rate of six miles 
per hour, and was paid out by means of a brake drum. 
At the end of the blocks weights were suspended, on 
the regulating of which the perfection of the paying 
out depended. By watching the distance the opposite 



CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 

weights were suspended the strain upon the cable 
was ascertained. Water offered a great resistance to 
the cable. If the cable was light it would descend in 
an inclined manner ; if bulky, then it would He hori- 
zontally. The cable was three hours before it reached 
the bottom, and not before seventeen miles had been 
paid out. If the cable, when in the process of picking 
up, were drawn in straight line, it would snap ; hence 
che utility of laying it slackly. 

THE FIRST MESSAGE TRANSMITTED. 

The first message sent over the Atlantic cable was 
the announcement of the death of James Eddy, "the 
first and best telegrapher in the United States," as the 
the dispatch published in the Times said. So in- 
credulous were the public, that doubts were expressed 
of the genuineness of the news transmitted, and only 
when a dispatch conveying the action of Parliament 
on an important public matter was verified by mail 
two weeks afterward, were these dispatches accepted 
as real. 

In a few weeks the cable ceased to work, and this on 
(he very day that had been set apart in the United 
States as a day of thanksgiving for its completion. 
Although it was again pronounced a failure, Mr. Field 
never lost faith, and made frequent trips to Europe to 
resuscitate the company. The civil war broke out in 
the meantime, and not until 1865 was another expedi- 
tion prepared. Submarine telegraphy had been greatly 
improved, a better cable was prepared, and the steam- 



100 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 

ship Great Eastern took it on board, and sailed for the 
American coast. Over twelve hundred miles of cable 
had been laid, when, by a sudden lurch of the vessel, 
the cable snapped and was lost. The bottom of the sea 
was dragged for days in search of the broken end, and 
the expedition returned to England. In 1866, the 
Great Eastern again sailed with a fresh cable, and twc 
thousand miles were safely stretched across the ocean, 
and the communication perfected July 27, 1866. After 
landing this the Great Eastern returned to the middle 
of the ocean, and after two months' search succeeded 
in grappling the sundered cable of the year previous. 
It was brought up from a distance of two miles, joined 
to the cable on the steamship, and carried safely to 
the Western shore. A weekly newspaper, called the 
Atlantic Telegraph, was published on the Great Eastern 
during these operations. 

An amusing story is told of a gentleman who beset 
Mr. Field at the time when the cable was sundered 
with a proposal as to the manner in which it could be 
best raised from the ocean. This was to sink a hollow 
tube in which to go down and seek after the cable. 
Mr. Field was so annoyed by the continued calls at his 
hotel that one morning he told his visitor that it 
should be done, and that the author of the idea should 
make the first attempt. He never afterward saw the 
gentleman. 

After twelve years of incessant labor, in which he 
crossed the ocean nearly fifty times, Mr. Field saw the 
crowning effort of his life accomplished. Congress 



CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 101 

voted him a gold medal with the thanks of the nation, 
and the prime minister of England said that it was 
only the fact that he was a citizen of another country 
that prevented him receiving high honors from the 
British government. 

COST OF THE FIRST CABLE. 

The first cable cost $1,256,250, and the company's 
expenditures up to December 1, 1858, amounted to 
$1,834,500. Among the dispatches sent over the cable 
was the speech of the king of Prussia just before the 
Austrian war. It cost $3,600 to transmit it. This 
cable has been in running order almost continually 
since its successful completion. In 1874 work was 
begun by the "Direct Cable Company" to lay a cable 
between Ballinskeligs Bay, Ireland, and Bye, New 
Hampshire, by way of Nova Scotia. It was completed 
in 1875. "The Compagnie Francaise du Telegraph de 
Paris a New York 1 ' completed, December 15th, 1879, 
the laying of a cable from Brest, France, to St. Pierre, 
Miquelon, and thence to North Eastham, Massachus- 
etts, and an additional cable was laid by tho Anglo- 
American Company in July, 1880. 

RECENT REMARKABLE IMPROVEMENTS IN CABLE LAYING. 

The rapidity with which*the later cables, particularly 
the last two, were laid, is in striking contrast with 
the laying of the earlier trans-Atlantic cables. "When 
the first attempts were made, the practicability of the 
scheme appeared doubtful. Two failures occurred. 



102 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 

The first cable, 1857-8, was defective, and, although 
between August 13th and September 1st, 1858, four 
hundred messages were sent between Valentia and 
the Newfoundland coast, yet the rate of reception was 
very variable, the signals often unintelligible and requir- 
ing repetitions. After much trouble and cost, the 
location of the defect was ascertained, but all attempts 
to recover the cable failed. In 1865 was commenced 
the laying of the second cable, and about half of it 
had been paid out when it broke. OjDerations were 
suspended until the following year (1866), when a 
stronger but lighter and more flexible cable was suc- 
cessfully laid, the distance between Trinity Bay and 
Valentia being 2,134 miles. In 1869 the French 
Atlantic line between Brest and St. Pierre, and thence 
to Duxbury, Mass., went into operation, and in the 
summer of 1875 the final splice of the Direct Cable 
Company's line was made. Since the days when the 
difficulties in the way of trans-Atlantic telegraphy 
appeared almost insuperable, wonderful strides have 
been made in the electric art, and great facilities have 
been introduced in the method of paying out the 
cable from the ship, so that what was formerly re- 
garded as a vast experiment has now become a very 

practicable work. 

• 

MR. FIELD AND THE CABLE. 

Mr. Field's energetic labor was pursued with a zeal 
which entailed heavy financial expenditure. Though 
a man of independent fortune when he began, he em- 



CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 103 

barked in it so large a portion of his capital as nearly 
to make shipwreck of the whole. While in England, 
engaged in the expedition of 1857, a financial storm 
swept over this country, and his house suspended; 
but on his return he asked only for time, and paid all 
in full with interest. The stoppage, however, was a 
heavy blow, and, being followed by a fire in 1859 which 
burned his store to the ground, and by the panic of 
December, 1860, just before the breaking out of the 
war, he was finally obliged to compromise with his 
creditors. Thus released he devoted himself to the 
work of his life. The success of the Atlantic cable 
brought back a portion of his lost wealth, when his 
first care was to make good all losses to others. He 
addressed a letter to every creditor who suffered by 
the failure of his house in 1860, requesting him to 
send a statement of the amount compromised, added 
the interest for nearly six years, and as fast as pre- 
sented returned a check in full. The whole amount is 
stated to have been $200,000. 

CABLE OPERATORS. 

These persons form a class by themselves, requiring 
a special education and special adaptability to the 
service. Their life is anything but a cheerful or social 
one, for they are usually located in out of the way 
places on the sea coast, where neighbors are few and 
far between, and scarcely of a character calculated to 
constitute an interesting and pleasant social circle. 

"When on duty they are closely occupied in watching 



104 CABLE TELEGBAPHrf. 

and translating the slender point of light whose vibra- 
tions convey to the eye with them, as sound does to the 
ear of the ordinary telegraph operator, the intelligence 
which it is necessary to communicate. When off duty 
their pleasures and recreations are few indeed, and 
taken altogether the occupation and it surroundings 
are not enticing to individuals of social and compan- 
ionable proclivities. 

It may be said on the other hand, however, that the 
labor required is not excessive, and is well paid. If 
there is a lack of opportunity for social enjoyment, 
there is also not much temptation to spend money, so 
that the position of cable operator is one in which 
there is an opportunity for financial accumulation. 
Most if not all of the cable operators on this side of 
the Atlantic came from England, and after a certain 
term of service are entitled to a three months' leave of 
absence to visit their native land, if they so desire. 
They receive from the company a liberal allowance to 
defray their expenses upon the trip. 

ECONOMY IN SENDING MESSAGES. 

The price per word being a consideration in trans- 
mitting messages over the Atlantic cable, the aim 
of merchants, news agencies, and others is to send as 
few words and convey as much information as possi- 
ble. A great number of cipher codes are in use, 
composed generally of columns of words or figures 
answering to every possible emergency. The codes 
are kept profoundly secret, and to prevent the clerks 



CABLE TELEGRAPHS, 105 

and employes in the offices interpreting and divulg- 
ing the message, a secret understanding often exists 
between the principals to read the cipher backward 
or forward half a dozen words. The following sample 
of a message presents the most unintelligible aspect 
to an outsider: 

John Bolton & Co., Liverpool, to Preston, Banks 
& Co., New Orleans. — Kildare — Description — Sacred 
— Ecuador — Pot— Screamer — Shrimp — Betsy — Name- 
less — Bobby — Bellona — Obscure — Numantia — Kattle- 
trap — Richard — Sackbut — Sally — Salmon — Penholder. 

Such a queer combination of words might lead one 
to the conclusion that the cotton merchants were given 
to indulge in an eccentric species of wit peculiar to 
themselves; but the words have a stern significance 
that means "business." They form a cipher telegram 
of the most unrelenting "business aspect," even the 
diminutive "shrimp" bearing a grim message of special 
intelligence, and the very unsentimental Christian 
names answering to the names of various firms, who 
are wont to be addressed by much more respectful 
titles. It is necessary to take notice that the cotton 
bought by cable is still in this country or on the sea ; 
in fact, it is often bought, re-sold, and re-bought again 
perhaps half a dozen times before it ever touches the 
shores of England. The translation of the telegram 
above given is as follows : 

We have sold to Kingston & Co., Preston, 500 

Kildare bales (of cotton) at 7| (per pound), good qual- 

Description \- ity, color and staple. Terms laid down by 

Sacred. steamer. Bills of lading to be sent through 

j Messrs. Baring Brothers. 



106 



CABLE TELEGKAPHS. 



Ecuador 
Pot. 

Screamer. 

Shrimp 
Betsy. 

Nameless 
Bobby. 

Obscure 
Numantia 

Rattletrap 
Richard 

Sackbut 
Sally 

Salmon 
Penholder 



Buy for John Smith & Co., 200 bales at 3g, with 
fine, long, even staple ; inferior bales will be 
rejected. Ship by steamer. 

Execute this order if possible ; it may lead to a 
large business. 

Do not insure for Brown & Co. ; they will attend 
to their own. 

Bush & Wilson are not satisfied with their lot; 
it is not up to the mark. Use more care. 
Take special pains to ship no bales showing 
sticks or sand. 

Your letter is not to hand ; if important, cable 
particulars. 

The Numantia is making a long voyage : fears 
are entertained for her safety. 

Is James Rochdale good? and to what amount? 
Sharp is speculating. Be careful with him. 

The Manchester market is excited and rising 
rapidly. 



This cable telegram is a fair specimen of the kinds 
that are daily passing by hundreds over the Atlantic 
cable. The art of preparing these codes is one requir- 
ing considerable ingenuity. 



HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 107 



HUMOKS OF THE TELEGKAPH. 

In the progress of this little book up to the point 
reached, occasion has been met with for the intro- 
duction of incidents and anecdotes which have served 
to lighten its pages and add to their interest. Not- 
withstanding this, however, our plan would not be 
complete in the absence of an entire chapter devoted 
to the humors of the telegraph, and giving a suc- 
cession of well-authenticated accounts most mirthful 
and entertaining. 

We can scarcely do better than to introduce, in the 
beginning, the ingenious Irishman who inquired of 
an operator: "Do you ever charge anybody for the 
address of a message % " " No." " And do ye charge 
for signing his name, sir V continued the customer. 
"No." "Well, then, will ye please send this ? I just want 
me brother to know I am here," handing the follow- 
ing: "Cincinnati, Sept. 3d. To John M'Flynn — at 
New York — (signed) Patrick M'Flynn." 

An old lady in a town of Massachusetts, refused the 
gift of a load of wood from a tree struck by light- 
ning, through fear that some of the "fluid" might 
remain in the wood, and cause disaster to her kitchen 
stove. And during the summer of 1878, a Texas man 
declined to receive a dispatch from a yellow fever local- 
ity, lest he might catch the disease. 

That was a witty man who, being detained by a 



108 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

snow- blockade, penned a dispatch which ran thus : 
" My dear sir, I have every motive for visiting you, 
except a locomotive." So was the other who, under 
similar circumstances, telegraphed to his firm in New 
York: "I shall not be in the office to-day, as I have 
not got home yesterday yet." 

Incongruous telegrams as to their subjects, are 
numberless, their reason, economy. For instance : "To 
— . Nellie has fine girl. Sell my horse at price named." 

Another, sent from a Western town to a gentleman 
of this city, read : " To -. Matilda died this morn- 
ing. Send fifty dollars worth of cheap jewelry." 

A message sent from Cincinnati to Milwaukee read: 
" Send Pauline here immediately ; have a chance to 
get her married." And a Pennsylvania politician once 
telegraphed his father: " I have 2,000 majority — brother 
Sam died this morning." 

From Albany, Oregon, we learn of a farmer down 
the country who had occassion to telegraph to that 
city to friends, notifying them of the death of his 
father. Being anxious to get the message through 
promptly, he rode on horseback past one telegraph 
office to another, twenty miles nearer Albany, to send 
the message, giving as his reason for the extra travel 
that the office was twenty miles nearer, and, of course, 
the message would go quicker than from the other 
twenty miles further away. 

The following dispatch created no little amusement 
in the offices through which it passed. " Charlie and 
Julia met at S -'s yesterday, quarreled and parted 



HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 109 

for ever ; met again this morning and parted to meet 
no more; met again this evening and were married." 

There are evidences of a poetical turn of mind in 
this telegram, sent by a newly-married man while on 
his wedding tour, to a friend in Montreal : "Expect to- 
night a happy pair, bed and supper please prepare;" 
and of domestic bliss in the following, sent by a Wall 
street broker to his wife : " Send John. Also demi- 
john. Kiss Matty. Spank Arthur. Don't fret." 

The husband of Harriet Prescott Spofford was in 
Boston when he learned that he had become a father 
by this dispatch, dated Newburyport : " Dear father, 
I came to town this morning at eleven o'clock, and 
when you are disengaged I shall be very happy to be 
introduced to you. Truly your affectionate son, 
Eichard Spofford." 

"Mamma,' said a little girl, pointing to the ^gle- 
graph wires, "how do they send messages by those 
bits of wires without tearing them to pieces ?" " They 
send them in a fluid state, my dear," was the reply. 

A good story is told of a country woman who re- 
ceived a dispatch later than she expected : "It must 
have been delayed on the road," said she. "I know 
the wires are busy to-day, for I heard them working as 
I came along." 

" KILLING FAURE." 

Much ado about a little arose from the meddling of 
an astute operator of Paris, who, upon receiving a dis- 
patch of an unusual character for transmission, stared 



110 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

and inquired of the messenger by whom it was sent. 
The answer was: "By a gentleman living in the Rue la 
Fontaine." The operator requested the man to step 
into his office and take a seat. Meanwhile a gendarme 
was summoned and the message shown to him. It ran 
thus: "I have thought of a better and more expeditious 
mode of killing Faure," and was signed Mery. The 
agent started for M. Mery's residence ; he was in bed, 
but was in the act of announcing to his co-laborer, M. 
Dulvile, with whom he was writing Don Carlos, for 
which Verdi composed the music, that he had thought 
of another mode of dispatching the Marquis of Rosa 
(which part was to be acted by Faure) than by a pis- 
tol-shot, as in Schiller's tragedy, and had telegraphed 
to him to that effect. 

"additional wurred." 

" The top of the mornin' to yez, sur," remarked an 

Irishman, entering the Cincinnati office one morning. 
"Good morning," replied the operator. 
"Fhot do yez charge to sind a missige to Pitts 

burg ? " 

"Forty and three, sir." 

" And fhot is the three fur, I dunno ?" 

" That is for the additional words, sir." 

" Additional wurred ! And who is he ? " 

" Why, for ten words you pay forty cents and for 

each additional word three cents." 

"Oh, ho! ye spalpane! and that's your little game, 

is it ? Yez wants me to pay yez forty cints, which yez 



HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. Ill 

will pocket, and thin sind the missige wid that three 
cints by mail, eh? Oh, no ! I'll sind it by mail meself, 
and get tight on that same forty cints ! Good day to 
yez." 

And out he went, leaving the telegraphers to enjoy 
a hearty laugh. 

A SKETCH FROM RUSSIA. 

The last story is matched by one which reaches us 
from Russia, and is a faithful account of what took 
place in one of the Russian telegraph offices. 

The door is opened by a stout merchant. 

Merchant — Hollo, there ! Is it here that you send 
telegrams ? 

Operator — We can dispatch a telegram for you, sir, 
if you wish it. Will you be so good as to write down 
the message that you want to send 1 

The merchant took a sheet of paper, sat down with 
an air of stern satisfaction, and wrote : 

" To my son, Vasili Petrovitch Bogatoff, at Moscow: 
Vasia, you infernal dog ! You fool, you pig, you villain, 
you brigand, you pickpocket, you unbaptized son of a 
gun ! What the devil do you mean by rousing me up 
in the middle of the night with that cursed letter of 
yours, begging for money, as usual? Not a kopeck 
shall you have from me, and you may go and hang 
yourself ! " 

Operator (mildly but firmly) — Excuse me, sir, it is 
quite impossible for us to send such a message as 
that. 



112 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

Merchant— How ? Not send it? "What do you 
mean ? If I were to put that in a letter and mail it, 
it would go, and why shouldn't it go in a telegram ? 
Besides (with an air of unanswerable logic) he is a 
pig! Come, you must send it — you know it's your 
duty. 

Operator (with exasperating politeness) — Quite out 
of the question, sir, I assure you. Our rules are very 
strict, and we never depart from them. 

Merchant (furiously) — So much the worse for you, 
then. I'll write a letter twice as bad as that message, 
and send it off by the first mail — and then we'll see. 
That for you and your telegram ! They're not worth a 
kopeck. 

Exit triumphantly. 

A SATCHEL BY TELEGRAPH. 

The subject of our story was a German somewhat 
intoxicated, who boarded the Hudson River train at 
Kinderhook. He threw his satchel down in a corner 
of the car, took a seat, and was soon in the arms of 
Morpheus. On awaking he alleged that he had left his 
baggage at Kinderhook, and asked the boy employed 
on the train what he should do to recover it. The 
latter, who had seen the German place his satchel in 
the corner, replied: " You give me thirty cents and I'U 
telegraph to Kinderhook to have the depot master 
forward it by telegraph to Greenbush. It will reach 
there before we do." The German paid the money, 
gave a minute description of the missing property, and 



HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 113 

the boy departed, taking the satchel into another car. 
On reaching Greenbush the boy returned with the 
bag, and, placing it in the German's hands, said: 
" There's the first satchel I ever see come by tele- 
graph." "Ah," replied the German, "dot delegraff is 
vun great dings ; here, dake another quarter, mein 
boy." And the boy did. 

A MEDDLING KING SNUBBED. 

King John of Saxony was prone to dropping in upon 
officials when they least expected him. One day he 
appeared at the telegraph office of a small station. 
The operator apprised his colleague at the next station 
of the unwelcome visit, and before an acknowledgement 
of the warning came, was called upon to enlighten the 
inquiring monarch respecting the business of his office. 
Presently a message came along the wires, and his 
majesty desired to be acquainted with its purport. 
He was told it was unimportant, but was not to be put 
off, and insisted upon the message being repeated to 
him ; so the stammering operator had no choice but to 
regale the royal ears with the German equivalent for 
" The king pokes his nose into everything." 

A VERY PROPER OLD LADY. 

A droll mistake was made by an imaginative old 
dame who, having permitted a telegraph pole to be 
placed in front of her house, waited on the chief of 
the telegraph company concerned to complain that 
she could get no sleep at night, being kept awake by 



114 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

the noise made by the messages passing over her 
head. 

" I don't think, sir," said she, "you can be aware of 
all that's said along them wires. There's a deal that 
hadn't ought to be. I can assure you, sir, that very 
much that's said there, that I have to lie and listen to, 
is such as no decent woman ought to hear ; and I 
hope you will put a stop to it." 

The amused gentleman was hardly able to meet the 
accusation with due gravity ; but he did contrive to 
keep his countenance while he informed the old lady 
that the young men who had hitherto worked the 
wires were under notice of dismissal ; and that in 
future only young women of great respectability 
would be employed, so there would be no danger of 
her propriety being shocked any longer. 

LITTLE " JOHNNY RUSSELL." 

One evening at a time when Lord John Russell, 
known in English public-house political disputations 
by the disrespectful name " Johnny Russell," was in 
attendance at Queen Victoria's castle of Balmoral, in 
the north of Scotland, a little old man, buried in a 
great coat, handed a telegram, addressed to one of the 
ministers in London, to the telegraph operator at one 
of the stations on the Deeside railway. The operator, 
after glancing at the message, threw it contemptuously 
back with : 

" Put your name to it. It's a pity your master does 
not know how to send a telegram." 

The name was added. 



HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 115 

" Why, you can't write ! " exclaimed the operator, 
after vainly trying to make something of the signa- 
ture. " What's your name ! " 

" My name," said the messenger — " my name is 
John Russell." 

That operator was transferred to another office 
before many days passed. 

peter's telegram. 

A message had been received for Peter from a former 
sweetheart, Margaret Magarty, inviting him to spend 
the day with her. Of course the telegram was duly 
sent to his address. That evening a forlorn-looking 
object entered the office, and going to the operator, 
said : " Please, sur, I want to send a message." "Well, 
here is the paper, write it down." " Indeed, sur, I can't 
write." The operator, who was a brisk little man, 
said : " Come to the desk, then, and tell me what you 
want to send." He came slowly, and gave the address 
of Margaret Flagarty, etc., then, in a deep, sepulchral 
tone, hitching nearer the instrument, he added: " I am 
married, and to my sorrow!" If the wires didn't laugh 
the operators did, as the message sped swiftly from 
station to station. No two-volumed novel, with con- 
nubial miseries long drawn out, could have portrayed 
more heart-rending grief than Peter's telegram. 

he couldn't be fooled. 

"Would you mind readin' this for me, sir ? I can't 
read myself." It was a snow-shoveler on Walnut 



116 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

street, Louisville, that spoke, as he handed over an 
envelope, inclosing a telegram, which read : "Nashville, 
January 9, 1879. I shall arrive at Louisville by the 
three o'clock train this evening. Jerry A. Taft." "Will 
you read it again, sir ?" asked the snow-shoveler. It 
was read again. "You say it's signed Jerry A. Taft?" 
"That is the name." "Please read it once more." 
His request was complied with. " It goes right 
straight along — just them 'ere words, without any 
hitchin' or stumblin'?" "Just that way." "It can't 
be Jerry, then; it can't be Jerry," he mused; "Jerry 
couldn't say that many words without stutterin' all to 
pieces, to save his life. Some fellow's tryin' to fool me, 
but I'm too smart for him, I am." 

WRITES LIKE A MAN. 

A family in the country were electrified by the 
receipt of a telegraphic dispatch from a daughter, 
who was teaching in a distant city. The telegram 
was passed around and duly admired. The dashing 
boldness of the chirography came in for its share of 
the praise. The old lady shook her head with an air 
of gratified pride, as she ejaculated, slowly : 

"Anna Maria allers did write like a man; she's 
been takin' writin' lessons ; this here beats her last 
letter all holler !" 

A LITTLE STORY FROM MAINE. 

A man went into one of the offices in Bangor with 
a dispatch, which he insisted upon having sent off 



HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 117 

immediately. The operator accommodated him, and 
then hung the dispatch on a hook. The man hung 
around some time, evidently unsatisfied; at last his 
patience was exhausted, and he belched out: "Ain't 
you going to send that dispatch ?" The operator 
politely informed him that he had sent it. " No yer 
ain't," replied the indignant man; "there it is now on 
the hook." 

HOLLOW AND HELLO. 

A genuine "pahdee," quite aged, living some miles 
out of town, went into the offi-ce at Augusta one day 
to sell some "praties," and seeing the instruments, 
battery, etc., wondered if that was the "tiligraft." 
After gazing steadily for several minutes, he said he 
had always wanted to ask one question ; and this was 
it: "Is the wire hollow on the outside or on the 
inside 1 ?" Some one recently inquired of the manager 
of a telephone exchange whether telephone wire wasn't 
hollow. "No," gruffly replied the manager, "it's 
'hello.'" 

FOOLING THE SAVAGES. 

The ingenious French have contrived a novel way 
to impress che barbaric mind. M. de Brazza, who has 
charge of the expedition to Senegal, carries an electric 
battery in his pocket, communicating with two rings 
on his hand and with other apparatus scattered about 
his person. When he shakes hands with a savage 
chief, that chief will be very much astonished, for an 



118 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

electric shock will run up his arm and he will see 
lightning playing about the head of his visitor. Natu- 
rally he will think he is being interviewed by his 
satanic majesty, and will be ready to consent to any- 
thing in order to get away. 

"ONNATERAL FIXINS." 

An old lady living on one of the telegraph lines 
leading from Louisville, in the early days of telegraphy, 
observed some workmen digging a hole near her door, 
she inquired what it was for. "To put a post in for 
the telegraph," was the answer. Wild with fury and 
affright, she seized her bonnet and ran off to her next 
neighbor with the news. "What do you think?" she 
exclaimed in breathless haste; "they're setting up 
that paragraph right agin my door ; and now I reckon 
a body can't spank a child, or scold a hand, or chat 
with a neighbor, but that plaguy thing 11 be blabbing 
it all over creation. I won't stand it. I'll move 
right away where there ain't none of them onnateral 
fixins!" 



CHICAGO AND 



During the time when the Atlantic and Pacific 
Telegraph Company had established a aniform rate of 
twenty-five cents between any two offices east of the 
Mississippi River, a Chicago man, residing in the 
suburbs, having to telegraph home from a distant 
Wisconsin town, asked the diminutive and apparently 
unsophisticated operator in charge of the only tele- 



HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 119 

graph office in the place — a "Western Union one — what 
the tariff would be, and upon being told that one 
insatiate dollar would suffice, burst out: "Dollar be 
blowed ! We can telegraph to h — 1 in Chicago for a 
quarter!" "Oh, yes," calmly answered the cunning 
knight of copperas and brass, "but that ain't outside 
the city limits!" 

A WITTY ILLUSTRATION. 

Writing of the difficulty English engineers experi- 
enced in making educated Persians understand the 
working of the electric telegraph, Mr. Mounsey says : 
" Much of 'the time of one of our officers was occupied 
during several weeks in attempting to enlighten the 
mind of a provincial governor, who had got it into his 
head that the wires were hollow tubes, and that mes- 
sages were transmitted through them, as in the pneu- 
matic post. In vain was the whole apparatus shown 
to his highness ; in vain even all its parts explained 
and re-explained — he stuck to his idea; and it was 
only by the suggestion of the following simile that he 
was at last induced to relinquish it, and declare him- 
self satisfied : 

" i Imagine,' said the officer, ' a dog whose tail is 
here at Teheran, and his muzzle in London ; tread on 
his tail here, and he will bark there.'" 

OFFICE LOAFERS ELECTRIFIED. 

Newspaper editors especially will be thankful for a 
description of the manner in which certain telegraph 



120 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

operators of Sacramento, Cal., rid themselves of loafers. 
A box running the full length of the front of the office 
on the outside had furnished a tempting seat for the 
habitues. This was covered with zinc, which had 
been connected with the batteries that were contained 
in the box. A person sitting upon the box without 
touching his hands thereto did not feel the electricity, 
but if his hands dropped on the box, or he put them 
thereon to assist him in rising, he received such a 
sudden and astonishing shock as sent him an unbeliev- 
able number of feet toward the lofty roof and the 
adjacent river. Any good day a person might see 
some of these unfortunates, unexpectedly struck with 
this domesticated lightning, describing a fifty feet 
parabola in the air. 

SHOCKING THE NEGROES. 

At one of the stations on the Kentucky Central 
Railroad, a couple of negroes cut down a tree across 
the telegraph wire and broke it. The operator came 
out at once, determined on revenge. He quietly took 
his seat and ordered the negroes to bring the two ends 
of the wire together and mend it. Each seized end 
and end, but the moment they came in contact there 
was a sharp electric shock, and they let go. It was 
raining, and the battery was strong. However, the 
negroes didn't know where the shock came from, and 
tried it again. By this time they were so wet that 
the current would pass if the clothes of one but 
touched the other. Frightened and bewildered they 



HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 121 

brought the wires together again and again; each 
time, to their great astonishment, an electric shock 
convulsed them. And when the train started there 
sat that operator under the shelter of the depot still 
egging the negroes to fresh efforts. 

BLINDFOLDING THE "MASHEEN." 

Mrs. Moore, desiring at times to indulge in a little 
domestic telegraphy, had a wire run from the base- 
ment of her domicile to the second story sitting room 
thereof, and equipped with a pair of learners' instru- 
ments. By the help of a telegraphic friend she and 
her husband soon learned to communicate deftly with 
each other, sending down instructions to the servants 
and superintending household matters generally with- 
out the inconvenience of traveling too frequently up 
and down two flights of stairs. Bridget and Mary, of 
the lower regions, had watched this mysterious opera- 
tion with considerable interest, and, as the event 
proved, had settled upon a theory of their own as to 
the modus operandi of the concern — at all events they 
evidently considered that it was not altogether a safe 
thing to have in the room under certain contingencies. 

One evening Patrick and Michael had paid a visit to 
the aforesaid handmaidens, and the quartet had 
remained in close conference with closed doors until 
a late hour. The next morning Mrs. Moore discovered 
the telegraph instrument carefully covered over with a 
cloth, and nicely tucked in around the edges ! At first 
she was naturally astonished at such unprecedented 



122 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

care-taking, but when the truth flashed upon her that 
the unoffending instrument had merely been blind- 
folded, so that it couldn't see what was going on and 
report it to the " missus " up stairs, she laughed till she 
well nigh went into convulsions. So do her friends 
when she tells them the story. 

A CRAMMER. 

The buffaloes found in the telegraph poles of the 
overland line a new source of delight on the treeless 
prairie — the novelty of having something to scratch 
against. But it was expensive scratching for the tele- 
graph company; and there, indeed, was the rub, for 
the bisons shook down miles of wire daily. A bright 
idea struck somebody, to send to St. Louis and Chicago 
for all the brad-awls that could be purchased, and 
these were driven into the poles, with a view to wound 
the animals and check their rubbing propensity. 
Never was a greater mistake. The buffaloes were 
delighted. For the first time they came to the 
scratch sure of a sensation in their thick hides that 
thrilled them from horn to tail. They would go 
fifteen miles to find a brad-awl. They fought huge 
battles around the poles containing them, and the 
victor would proudly climb the mountainous heap of 
rump and hump of the fallen, and scratch himself into 
bliss until the brad-awl broke or the pole came down. 
There has been no demand for brad-awls from the 
Kansas region since the first invoice. 

Eight here we must shut down on funny stories. 
'Tis time to retire. 



{TELEGRAPHIC) "bulls/* 



123 



TELEGKAPHIO "BULLS." 

This is a fruitful section, probably to many readers 
the most interesting of all, if not the most useful. 
We must, however, keep it within reasonable bounds, 
culling from the best " bulls " which have come within 
the writer s knowledge, and telling these as concisely 
as possible, so as to include a goodly number. 

In so doing we find it the most convenient way to 
divide this section into two parts — telegraphic " bulls " 
by operators and by the public. 



" BULLS BY OPERATORS. 

" Bulls " are not all of a funny character. How big 
with fate to the last French empire was the tele- 
graphic blunder which caused the defeat of Marshal 
McMahon, in the summer of 1870 ! Failly had been 
telegraphed to move on Limbach; but the dispatch, 
as received by him, read " Kausbach," and he acted 
accordingly, by which move the plan of the campaign 
was fatally disarranged. 

Perhaps Fritz, in the following story, taken from the 
history of the Titanic struggle in the first year of the 
present decade, deserved, for his mercenary view of 
marriage, all the inconveniences and the disappoint- 
ment which a telegraphic "bull" caused him. 

A young German lieutenant, wounded in the Franco- 
German war, went for his health's sake to a quiet vil- 
lage in Vaud, where he found a sweetheart. By the 



124 TELEGKAPHIC " BULLS." 

time he had regained his health the pair were engaged ; 
then came a sudden order to report himself at Berlin, 
an order he, of course, obe} r ed. At first his disconso- 
late Marie was comforted by frequent letters full of 
protestations of love and constancy ; but as time wore 
on the lieutenant plied his pen less often and moder- 
ated its outpourings. At last he suffered six weeks 
to go without a word. He was expecting a reproachful 
reminder, when a telegram arrived from the faithful 
girl, which maybe thus translated: "Dear Fritz, — I 
have just received a letter informing me that my uncle, 
a millionaire in the East Indies, is dead, and that I am 
his sole heiress." Fritz felt his love revive as he read. 
He applied for leave of absence, and was soon exchang- 
ing greetings with the Swiss maiden. Though the 
coming of her lover filled her heart with joy, she 
could not refrain from gently upbraiding him for his 
silence. "Don't let us speak of it, dearest," replied 
he. "There is no longer any obstacle to our union. 
The unexpected good fortune which Providence has 
sent us has removed the objections of my parents; a 

fortune so colossal " "Fritz," interrupted Marie, 

"do not make fun of me." For answer the lieutenant 
drew her telegram out of his pocket, and showed her 
the words : " My uncle, a millionaire in the East Indies, 
is dead." The poor girl, dropping his hand, said, 
"Dear Fritz, I wrote: 'My uncle, a missionnaire.' He 
has left me all he had, which is just a hundred and 
ninety-six francs." Fritz went back to Berlin freed 
from his engagement. 



TELEGRAPHIC ,fc BULLS. 



125 



A writer on the other side of the Atlantic charges 
operators with having amazed a husband on his travels 
by informing him that he was the father of a dolphin; 
with having extinguished (distinguished) a man in 
Paris with an enormous red cockade ; made Italy preg- 
nant with a lamb (alarm) ; sent a man a train filled 
with penny shovels (perishable goods) ; told one man 
that his onions (opinions) were not wanted; made 
travelers inform their employers that they could not 
leave London without their cabbage (luggage) ; as- 
serted that sugar cans (canes) grew in Jamaica ; that 
seraphs (serfs) were emancipated in Eussia ; that the 
Emperor of Austria gave the ambassadors a spree 
(soiree) : made Captain Smith, of Her Majesty's 33d, 
indignant by addressing him as Captain Smith, of Her 
Majesty's dirty 3d; amazed a distinguished poet by 
consigning to him a cargo of codfish and salt pork, 
and amused a distinguished clergyman by asking him 
his lowest offer for steam coals ; and nearly got a mer- 
chant into the " black list" by saying that he was no- 
where (now here.) 

Considering the many millions of messages sent and 
received every year — some operators in the larger 
offices handling as many as from three to five hundred 
a day — and the fearful and wonderful penmanship in 
which many of them are disguised by the senders, the 
wonder is not so much that mistakes occasionally hap- 
pen, as that they do not occur far oftener, especially 
as the telegraphic symbols for many different letters 
and words are so nearly alike. 



126 TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 

The most frequent cause of error on the part of 
operators is the running of two or more words to- 
gether, on the one hand, or the unnecessary dividing 
of a word, on the other. For instance, the words 
" colored man" have been transformed into " Col. Ord- 
man;" u Addie Pratt" into " Addie P. Eat," and the 
signature " Theodore Rose" into "the odor of roses." 

" Subpoena witnesses and compel attendance " was 
made to read " Subpoena witnesses and compel Allan 
to dance." 

" Your son is dead. Be at depot. "Will arrive to- 
night," was changed in transmission to " Your son is 
dead beat. The depot will arrive to-night." 

A gentleman was once considerably surprised to re- 
ceive the following : " Do not hang about the hotel. 
Will write." The original message read : " Do nothing 
about the hotel. Will write." 

A newspaper dispatch published some years ago gave 
an account of the doings of a number of troops under 
the leadership of A. N. Cushman. As printed in the 
papers, however, it stated that the troops were led by 
" an Irishman." 

A story is told of a Kalamazoo, Michigan, judge who 
went to a neighboring town on business, and tele- 
graphed back to his wife: " Have found Garland. 
Won't be home for a week." When received, the 
message read : " Have found girl, and won't be home 
for a week," which doubtless made an explanation 
necessary when he did get back. 

The following dispatch was recently sent by a lady 



TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 



127 



to her reverend husband, who was off on a visit: 
u Come home and marry M. E. Stuart Thursday morn- 
ing." The worthy divine received the message in this 
shape, which considerably startled him : " Come home 
and marry me. Start Thursday morning." 

To properly appreciate many good " bulls " it is 
necessary that one be acquainted with the Morse tele- 
graphic alphabet. It is believed, however, that the 
following will be found interesting even to those who 
do not know anything of the business : 

There are two hotels in London much frequented 
by gentlemen of the bar. One is Thavies' Inn, and 
the other Sergeant's Inn. In a telegram addressed to 
a disciple of Blackstone at the former house the name 
of the hotel was rendered Thieves' Inn, and, curiously 
enough, about the same time another telegram called 
the other house Serpent's Inn. 

A merchant in Boston recently received the follow- 
ing dispatch : 

" Chicago, July 24. 

" Jennie is good — now six dogs regularly." 

His surprise was great. What Jennie was good for 
he could not imagine, and six dogs regularly was 
incomprehensible, unless it referred to diet, and then 
it was monstrous and astounding. After some con- 
jecture he telegraphed for an explanation, and was 
relieved by the following correction : 

" Chicago, July 24. 

" Time is good — now six days regularly." 

The subject in question was the time occupied in 



128 TELEGEAPHIC " BULTS." 

shipment of goods to tlie West. Jennie was an irrele- 
vant female introduced by the operator; and as for 
the dogs, they were a pure invention. 

An English lord, as proud and fond as a man should 
be of his beautiful young wife, was just about rising 
to speak in a debate in the House of Commons, in 
London, when a telegram was put into his hands. 
He read it, left the House, jumped into a e;*b, 
drove to Charing Cross, and took the train to Dover. 
Next day he returned home, rushed into his wife's 
room, and, finding her there, upbraided the astonished 
lady in no measured terms. She protested her ignor- 
ance of having done anything to offend him. " Then 
what did you mean by your telegram?" he asked. 
" Mean ! What I said, of course. What are you talk- 
ing about ?" " Read it for yourself," said he. She 

read : "I flee with Mr. to Dover straight. Pray 

for me." For the moment words would not come ; 
then, after a merry fit of laughter, the suspected wife 
quietly remarked : " Oh, those dreadful telegraph peo- 
ple ! No wonder you are out of your mind, dear. I 

telegraphed simply: "I tea with Mrs. in Dover 

Street. Stay for me.' " 

Sometimes operators are called upon to pay for 
losses that may be occasioned by mistakes made in 
messages received by them, as in the following: 

They called him " Towser," and he was making 
frantic efforts to get up a reputation for never breaking. 
One day as he was passing a certain desk he heard 
a call, and gracefully vaulted upon a high office stool 
to answer it. This is how he copied the message: 



TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 129 

" To John Brown, wholesale druggist. — Please send 
per express one barrel bottled ale immediately. 

Seaton Bros." 

Bottled ale was not in Mr. Brown's line of business, 
but Seaton Brothers were old customers of his, and so, 
willing to oblige them, he procured the ale and for- 
warded it without delay. Next day, in return for his 
kindness, they sent him the following message: 

"To John Brown. — "What do you mean by sending 
us ale? We refuse it. Hurry up our oil. 

Seaton Bros." 

Surprised and indignant at their apparent ingrati- 
tude he hastened to the office and wrathf ully exclaimed : 
" What in the thunder is the meaning of this? There's 
been a lovely blunder made somewhere ! Get that 
message repeated quick!" 

So they got it repeated, and it turned out that it was 
a barrel of boiled oil Seaton Brothers wanted, instead 
of bottled ale. WThen this was explained to Mr. 
Brown — they broke it to him as gently as possible — he 
did not fly into a rage with the long-suffering manager, 
as they expected him to do. He merely remarked: 
"That operator must be pretty fond of ale when he 
takes to dragging it into messages so promiscuous 
like. However," he added, grimly, "he shall have 
plenty of it for once, for he's got to take that barrel 
and pay for it, too. Yes, sir, pay for it ! " he repeated, 
with savage emphasis. 

Another instance of a little different nature: One 
evening the proprietor of the railroad eating-house at 



130 TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 

Summit, California, received the following dispatch: 
" Have 100 gallons coffee for my men on arrival of 
No. 1. (Signed) Lieutenant Morgan, Commanding 
detachment Co. B." 

The operator promptly delivered the message. A 
happy smile overspread the landlord's countenance, 
for he had had government contracts before. He 
grasped the dinner gong, and never before did that 
gong give forth sounds so loud and long. It quickly 
summoned to his side half a score of cooks, waiters 
and maids ; the order of the night was read, and each 
assigned to a post of duty. All was bustle and con- 
fusion. Being only an eating place for train men and 
passengers, the stock of tinware and cooking utensils 
was not very extensive. The landlord skirmished 
around the premises for tinware, and in lieu of coffee 
pots, etc., clothes boilers, dish pans, milk pans, dip- 
pers, and even oyster cans were filled with water and 
ground coffee, and placed upon any available spot 
where heat could be transmitted to their contents. 
Quantity not quality being desired, even the operator 
utilized the wash basins, and made three gallons over 
his office fire. What hurrying, shouting and swear- 
ing ! Everybody got soaked with coffee ; everything 
that would hold fluid contained coffee ; even the china 
pitchers and wash basins in the rooms fitted up for the 
accommodation of guests had to be used. 

Fifteen minutes before the train was due the land- 
lord found that he had the required quantity all made, 
and was proud of his success. The train arrived. 



TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 131 

Lieutenant Morgan, accompanied by two men, each car- 
rying a five gallon can, entered the hotel. The cans 
were quickly filled, and the men departed. "Bring on 
your other cans," shouted the landlord. " What other 
cans ?" asked the lieutenant. "To hold this coffee you 
ordered," replied the landlord. "I ordered ?" and the 
officer gazed about him in astonishment at the array 
of cans, crockery and waiters. " Yes," shouted the 
landlord, drawing forth his message and exhibiting it. 
"You ordered one hundred gallons of coffee." "I or- 
dered but ten gallons, and here's your money for it," 
replied the officer, throwing down a five dollar green- 
back. " All aboard," shouted the conductor, and the 
lieutenant rushed from the room. The landlord was 
now frantic ; he quickly followed the officer out, but 
the train had started, and in a few moments was thun- 
dering down the mountain side a mile away. 

Then the landlord swore, and made for the tele- 
graph office. A very emphatic, if not elegant, saluta- 
tion fell on the operator's ears. He was astounded. 
He immediately called up the office from which he had 
received the message, and had it repeated. Sure 
enough it read ten. The upshot was that the operator 
had to pay eighteen dollars for the ninety gallons of 
coffee. 

Occasionally, however, mistakes of this kind turn 
out to the advantage of the customer, and no com- 
plaints are made. A merchant once telegraphed to a 
wholesale produce firm in New York to buy him a 
quantity of cheese. The original message said a hun- 



132 TELEGRAPHIC " BULLS.'' 

died, but as delivered it read a thousand. Knowing 
the man to be perfectly responsible, the firm pur- 
chased for and sent him all the cheese it could get. 
The merchant thought that so much cheese would ruin 
him ; but it so happened that the unusual demand had 
the effect of increasing the price to such an extent 
that he was able to sell it again at an almost fabulous 
profit. 

In the summer of 1864 a telegraphic order was sent 
from Washington by General McCallum, superintend- 
ent military railroads, to Major Wentz at Binghamton, 
N.Y., to forward one hundred and fifty railroad men to 
Washington at once. The dispatch, when it reached 
its destination, read " fifteen hundred men." Such a 
demand was considered extraordinary, but in those 
days of " military necessity" strange things were al- 
ways expected, and the men were soon collected and 
on their way South, wondering into what part of Dixie 
they were to clear a way for Uncle Sam's iron horses. 
But the surprise of the superintendent was still 
greater when they arrived, and a search was imme- 
diately instituted for the operator who made the mis- 
take. As it cost about thirteen thousand dollars to 
transport the men to Washington, and the expense of 
keeping them there was not less than two thousand 
dollars a day, it seemed likely to prove a serious affair 
for somebody. It was ascertained that the error 
occurred in transmission between New York and Bing- 
hamton ; but before the investigation was concluded, 
an order came from General Sherman, then at Dalton, 



TELEGEAPHIC " BULLS." 133 

Georgia, to send him one thousand railroad men 
immediately, and so the blunder resulted in good to 
the government, and the telegraph was saved from 
censure. 

"bulls" by the public. 

All telegraphic "bulls" should not be fathered upon 
companies and their operators. The public are respon- 
sible for a large share of them. One principal ca,use 
of this is the miserable manuscripts furnished opera- 
tors by customers. The following is a case in point : 

An eminent divine was to deliver a lecture in a 
neighboring city, and wishing to telegraph his subject 
ahead for advertisement, hastily penned a dispatch, 
handing it to a boy to deliver at the telegraph office, 
he himself leaving town. The operator, after sinking 
a shaft of close scrutiny into the Chinese-like hiero- 
glyphics of the message, seemed suddenly to strike a 
vein of intelligence, and the message went quickly on 
its way, the subject of the lecture being duly an- 
nounced in the next morning's paper as " Our Con- 
stitutions, and Fresh Halibut." The sender of the 
message, who had come to lecture upon " Some . 
Considerations on the Force of Habit," says if any- 
body will start a petition to suppress all telegraph 
companies, he will be the first to sign it. 

Correspondents of the press, when they use the 
telegraph, are in the habit, for economical reasons, of 
dispensing with articles, prepositions and conjunc- 
tions, while punctuation is perforce out of the 
question ; and the " bulls" arising from this cause 
cannot fairly be blamed on operators. 



134 TELEGRAPHIC " BULLS." 

Of such was that occasioned by a message sent from 
England to the editor of the Java Bode, which read : 
" Pro}30sed to Brand Speaker," meaning that Mr. 
Brand had been nominated Speaker of the House of 
Commons. Printed as above, the meaning conveyed 
to the readers of the journal was that it was proposed 
to brand the Speaker of the august body indicated. 

ft Bulls " in original messages might be given that 
are fully as amusing as any made by operators. For 
example : " My barn burned up last night, October 22. 
I want you to come and see it." Or the following, sent 
from Kingston, N. Y. : " To J. W. B., Honesdale, Pa. 
Your horse died this morning after writing you a 
letter." 

To show how difficult it is to make out some of the 
words in messages, and how easily mistakes may arise, 
we give the manner of spelling a number of common 
words, as found in the dispatches of many patrons of 
the telegraph. 

" Comer chel Worf," " Comerciol Warf," " Centrel 
Deapot," " Junktion," " Jursy Citty," " Nigra Falls," 
"Porkepsee," " Moris Weight Peches," "Pees," "Bed- 
ash," "Turnups," "Cllamns,"" Eells," "Ells," "Hadic," 
"Macril," " Ancer," " Ansewer," "Amediately," "Ame- 
aditley," " Imegitlay," "Busnes," "Cittifacat," " Car- 
ridge," "Delade," "Dolors," "Evrey," " Garrentee," 
u Pararie," "Possable," " Pituculars," " Besons," " Spe- 
shall," "Spetial," "Seckend," "Two-day," "Two. 
knight," " John ded will bey berred tomorrough," "I 
will gow met me at depow." An erudite Assemblyman 
says his " Comity is tring to do so." 



TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 135 

Sometimes most entertaining "bulls" have arisen 
from sheer carelessness on the part of senders, as in 
the following instances : 

A merchant away from home received a telegram 
announcing that his wife had been safely delivered of 
a little girl. Simultaneously a message came from his 
partner stating that a draft had been presented to the 
firm with a doubtful signature, and inquiring if he 
knew anything about it. He at once replied to both 
messages, but somehow misdirected them. The 
amazement of the wife might be conceived when she 
was informed: "I know nothing about it : it's a swin- 
dle;" and of the partner when he received hearty 
congratulations upon his safe delivery. 

An enterprising fish dealer in an eastern city indited 
a fish order to "Paine Brothers, Eastport, Maine," but 
his clerk inadvertently made the message read " Paine 
Bros., New York," a firm priding itself upon filling 
every order. Consequently the fish was sent from New 
York, arriving fresh and nice, but with a " C. O. D." 
attached, involving a bill of expense which the 
enterprising fish dealer declared the telegraph com- 
pany should pay, or he would bankrupt the whole 
concern, if it took every dollar he was worth in the 
world. 

Operators could tell of meannesses on the part of 
the public, occasioning errors, wrongful blame, and 
sometimes more serious consequences, almost incred- 
ible in their degree of contemptibleness. 

"What means it," says a faithful manager of an 



13(J TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 

office, " that Mr. should come to us and demand 

that we refund the money he paid on that message you 
sent him ? He says you paid for the message when 
you sent it." " I'll tell you how it was," says the 
patron, confidentially ; " I ought to have paid for it — 
didn't want to look mean, you know, so I gave him to 
understand, in a roundabout way, that I did pay. 
Better be on the telegraph company than on me, you 
know ; so you keep mum, it's all right." 

Another example is that of a careless fellow who 
neglected till the last moment to answer an important 
telegram, and then, to cover his delinquency, replied 
by telegraph : " Did not receive your message till too 
late ; train had left." "You see," he explained to a 
person accompanying him to the office, "I don't want 
to go, and there's no other way for me to get out of 
it." His friend, who had waited all day for the reply, 
vows eternal vengeance on the telegraph generally, and 
especially to that " contemptible apology for a man- 
ager who would let an important message lie around 
all day before delivering it!" 

A correspondent of The Operator, Mr. D. C. Shaw, 
relates effectively the sad results of an error on the 
part of the sender of a message, with which account 
we must conclude this chapter. 

"I was once at a small railway station," writes he, 
"and saw, on his way to the village hotel, a distin- 
guished passenger whose leg had just been crushed 
by a moving train. All that skill and friendly services 
could do were instantly in operation. Sympathising 



TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 137 

and zealous young persons, at the sufferer's request, 
flew to the telegraph office to summon the wife. Full 
of excitement they write a message. ^ letter is omit 
ted from the address, a single letter. The message is 
rushed to its destination, but — and you know the 
sequel. An hour passes; then comes an office mes- 
sage, 'Give better address.' The same name is given, 
with the same fatal omission, but they add the words 
' Care of Messrs. — — , No. — .' Another pause. Then 

another office message : ' Messrs. have closed office 

and gone home to (a suburban town) ; shall we 

deliver by special messenger V Meantime a train 
arrives — the train upon which the wife should have 
come. The sufferer rouses himself expectantly. How 
hard it is to tell him she hasn't come ! Then he fails 
rapidly, and they fear the result. Meantime the mes- 
sage is delivered ; the wife is coming, but he is uncon- 
scious. And oh, the anathemas that pour in upon the 
telegraph and all connected with it ! As the facts are 
known to but few outside of the circle especially con- 
cerned, the circumstances are misconstrued and exag- 
gerated, and the poor operator, who would willingly 
have run with the message through all the hours of 
the day and night to insure its safe delivery, is 
branded as ' cruel,' ' barbarous,' and remains there- 
after under a certain weight of ignominy through 
many unjust accusations." 



138 LIGHTNING FREAKS. 



LIGHTNING FKEAKS AND TRAGEDIES. 

As has often been said of fire and water, the electric 
fluid is an excellent servant, but a very bad master. 

DEATHS FROM LIGHTNING. 

Many persons are killed by it every year, probably 
more than is popularly supposed. According to some 
recently published statistics, more than ten thousand 
people have been smitten by the electric fluid within 
the past thirty years, of whom twenty-two hundred 
and fifty-two were killed outright. Of the eight hun- 
dred and eighty killed within the last ten years, only 
two hundred and forty-three were females. 

The would-be wit of newspaper scribblers has been 
exercised upon this difference, the reason of which is 
clear when it is considered that men are exposed to 
accident far more than women are, because they spend 
less time at home, being abroad in the pursuit of busi- 
ness or in labor. 

It would be well to bear in mind that persons 
struck by lightning should not be given up as dead 
for at least three hours. During the first two hours 
they should be drenched freely with cold water. If 
this treatment fails to restore animation, salt should 
be added to the water, and the drenching continued 
another hour. 

EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 

A difference in the effects of lightning in various 
countries has been remarked. It is said to be more 



LIGHTNING FREAKS. 139 

dangerous in England than here. Why, so far as our 
knowledge extends, nobody appears to offer a reason. 
In France the mortality from lightning is twenty-seven 
a year on the average, of about two hundred and fifty 
struck. The low lying departments have fewer cases 
than hilly districts. Eighty were wounded and nine 
killed in one thunderstorm at Chateauneufles-Moutiers 
in 1861 ; and within one week, when the air was highly 
charged with electricity, thirty-three fearful flashes of 
lightning were observed, each bringing death to some 
victims. Nine deaths a year from lightning are re- 
ported from Switzerland, and but three from Belgium, 
a more populous country, which confirms the alleged 
greater frequency of casualties from lightning in hilly 
or mountainous districts — a distinction, however, which 
cannot be applied to England. 

AN OLD NOTION EXPLODED. 

The popular belief that when one gets into a feather 
bed he is safe from the ravages of lightning was 
rudely shocked by what occurred not long ago in a 
country store in Virginia which was struck by light- 
ning. The fluid made a large hole in the roof, and 
passed through a feather bed, the recognized non- 
conductor. Happily no one was lying upon it. 

A TRIPLE TRAGEDY. 

During a severe lightning and thunder storm at 
Newberne, N. C, in the summer of 1878, three young 
persons, Isaac Kichardson, aged twenty, Eliza Collins, 



140 LIGHTNING FREAKS. 

twenty, and Laura Williams, nineteen, were struck by 
a heavy discharge of electricity and instantly killed. 
Richardson was escorting the two girls, one on each 
arm, from church to their homes, and as they neared 
Queen Street, a gentleman, who was but a few feet 
behind, saw them fall as a lightning flash struck them. 
The coroner found the lifeless bodies lying side by 
side, with arms still locked. At the time of the acci- 
dent they were walking under a steel-handled um- 
brella, which was found lying upon the ground near 
the bodies, the cover partially burned, and which, un- 
doubtedly, was what attracted the electric discharge. 

SINGULAR FREAKS OF THE LIGHTNING. 

A gentleman, while walking the streets at Des 
Moines, Iowa, during a thunder storm recently, had 
one of his eyes completely destroyed by lightning, 
without receiving other injury. 

A queer freak of the lightning is reported from 
Rockville, Conn. It entered at the door of one of the 
stores in a livid flash, which actually lit an oil lamp, 
and left it burning, without leaving any other visible 
marks of its passage. 

While a body of two hundred men were drilling at 
West Point, on one occasion, a black cloud, very low 
down, suddenly discharged itself of its electricity, 
seemingly through the attraction of the two hundred 
bright gun barrels, and the shock distributed itself 
throughout the corps. Several of the men were 
stunned, and a large proportion of the guns were 
knocked out of their owners' hands. 



LIGHTNING FREAKS. 141 

Lightning at Madison, Wisconsin, during the win- 
ter struck into the lake, and hurled masses of ice two 
feet thick hundreds of feet through the air. 

Lightning recently struck a wine cellar in France, 
and converted a large quantity of bad wine into excel- 
lent brandy, a change appreciated by the owner. 

During a heavy thunder shower at Mechanic Falls, 
Maine, in the summer of 1880, a boy was sitting at the 
foot of a Balm of Gilead tree which was struck by 
lightning. The tree was splintered, but the boy was 
apparently uninjured. Soon after the accident he was 
seized with nausea, and on a physician removing the 
little fellow's clothing there was found upon his stom- 
ach and chest an imprint resembling the trunk of the 
tree, its branches and buds as perfect as could be 
drawn by the hands of a skilled artist. 

A thunderbolt which came down at Milton, Conn., 
and paid particular attention to the house of a Mr. 
Brown, deserves record for its singular and vigorous 
behavior. It began by demolishing the lightning rod 
in the most sarcastic and scornful manner. It then 
entered a second story room of the house, cut a hole 
six feet square in the floor, demolished the stove, and 
broke every pane of glass in the window, after which 
it mildly entered the dining room and ripped up the 
floor there. It made minced meat, so to speak, of the 
wash room, and left the house without any underpin- 
ning to speak of. Then it paid its respects to the 
barn, went back to the house, and violated the sanctity 
of a servant maid's room. The poor girl was just 



142 LIGHTNING FREAKS. 

innocently adjusting her hair in the looking-glass 
when she was thrown violently backward on the bed 
by the furious thunderbolt, and she says she will 
never be vain again. In a neighboring house the 
frisky element " scattered a quantity of soft soap, and 
tore one rivet from a frying-pan." 

LIGHTNING IN TELEGRAPH OFFICES. 

Although a telegraph office is one of the best places 
to take refuge in during a thunderstorm, lightning 
sometimes follows the wires into the offices. During 
severe storms telegraph offices are generally " cut 
out." The switch-board, through which the wires 
pass before reaching the instruments, is provided 
with what are called " lightning arresters," so that 
but little damage can be done. Two cases of death 
by lightning in telegraph offices are on record, both 
of which occurred in the summer of 1876. One 
was that of a young woman in Nevada, and the other 
a Miss Clapp, manager of an office in Massachusetts. 
The latter had the instruments " cut out," but the 
lightning came in through the open window, there 
being a strong draught through the office, which, of 
course, should not be permitted during a thunder 
storm. 



SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 143 



SHAEP PEACTICE BY TELEGEAPH. 

In common, we suppose, with every appliance of 
modern civilization, the telegraph is abused by the 
Ishmaelites in the community, who prefer rather to 
plunder than to work honestly. Numerous examples 
of this, some of them indicating remarkable ingenuity 
on the part of the swindler, are published from time 
to time as they occur. 

One of these devices, unearthed at St. Louis, con- 
sists in bringing two telegraphic dispatches and a 
messenger's book to a wealthy man for his signature, 
the page of the book being so cut and underlaid with 
a blank check that the signing of the name twice 
would give the clever operator a check both signed 
and indorsed. One business man narrowly escaped 
the trap, which failed for lack of a little forethought, 
as the paper beneath, not being securely fastened, 
slipped enough to attract attention as the name was 
being signed the second time. This small circum- 
stance defeated the plan, and saved the discoverer a 
big deficit in his bank account. 

OBLIGE THE GENERAL. 

On one occasion, when General McClellan was in 
Europe, many prominent New Yorkers received, as 
they supposed from him, cablegrams to the effect that, 
having purchased a horse, for instance, from say John 
Smith, for $420, it would be considered a particular 



144 SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 

favor if the person addressed would pay Mr. Smith 
the amount, which would be made right on the gen- 
eral's return. This dispatch was usually delivered in 
the forenoon, while Mr. Smith made his appearance in 
the afternoon with the bill and presented a telegram 
purporting to be signed by General McClellan, re- 
questing him to call at that address for the amount. 
The money in nearly every case was paid, and in this 
way about a dozen persons were victimized. The mes- 
sages were not all alike. Sometimes it was a house 
the general had rented or bought, with the amount 
correspondingly higher. Sometimes it was jewelry, 
and at other times something else. The swindlers 
were eventually caught, however, and severely sen- 
tenced. 

A MODERN " ST. JOHN." 

Some Cincinnati and Indianapolis merchants were 
similarly swindled by a gang of whom a former oper- 
ator of the Western Union named James P. St. John, 
who afterward assumed the name of "White, was a 
prominent member. Early one morning St. John 
called at the Western Union branch office, Third 
Street, Cincinnati. Being early, no one was present 
but the janitor. St. John represented himself as an 
employe of the main office, said he wanted to trace a 
message, and asked to see the messenger's delivery 
book. The book was afterward missing, and the 
matter reported to Manager Armstrong. It was not 
found until a week later, when the cashier of the La- 
fayette Bank called at the main office to ascertain 



SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 145 

whether a dispatch received from Saratoga, N. Y., 
signed " Springer," and ordering payment to Duhun 
& Co. of $450 for jewelry, was genuine. The dispatch 
was written on a regular No. 1 blank. Mr. Armstrong 
pronounced it a forgery. A short time afterward 
when a young man presented the bill to the paying 
teller of the bank, he was arrested and imprisoned, 
and proved to be the same person who stole the mes- 
senger's book. Another forged dispatch, similar to 
the above, purporting to be sent by H. Hirsch, who 
was East, was delivered at the store of H. Hirsch & 
Co. same day, requesting them to pay Duhun & Co. 
$300 for goods previously purchased by him. In this 
case the swindlers were more successful. A confede- 
rate of St. John's shortly afterward presented a bill 
for $300 on one of Duhun & Co.'s billheads, and a 
check for the amount on one of the Cincinnati banks 
was given him. Instead of presenting the check at 
the bank he went direct to the establishment of Du- 
hun & Co., where he represented himself as an em- 
ploye of Hirsch & Co., gave a plausible excuse for 
the check being drawn in favor of Duhun & Co., 
selected seventy-five dollars worth of jewelry, and 
received $225 change, the check being pronounced 
genuine at the bank. Upon learning of the arrest of 
his confederate he left the city. 

At Indianapolis a jeweler was similarly victimized 
out of $285 by St. John. The Cincinnati parties con- 
senting, a requisition was procured for him, and he 
was conveyed to Indianapolis and tried, convicted, and 



146 SHAKP PKACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 

sentenced to eight years' imprisonment. His confed- 
erate, who victimized Duhun & Co., and whose name 
has not transpired, was finally traced to Chicago, 
where he was arrested and returned to Cincinnati for 
trial. He had in his possession when arrested a num 
ber of telegraph blanks stolen at New York, Baltimore, 
and other points. 

BIG SWINDLE IN TOLEDO. 

Another example of swindling reaches us from 
Toledo, where a business firm, who are largely engaged 
in the grain trade, received what purported to be a 
dispatch from a correspondent named Wilson, at Jack- 
son, Michigan, stating that there was a good opening 
at Dexter for purchasing wheat, and requesting the 
Toledo firm to send him $1,000 by American Express, 
and to notify him by telegraph when the money was 
sent. 

A package containing the amount required was ac- 
cordingly placed in the express office at Toledo, 
addressed to Mr. Wilson, Dexter, and a telegram also 
sent to Wilson, notifying him of the fact. About the 
same time the express agent at Dexter received a tele 
gram from Jackson, signed Wilson, directing him to 
deliver the package to a man who would call for it. 
describing in the telegram minutely a man who after- 
ward called, asked for, and received the $1,000 pack- 
age. For a week or two the Toledo firm quietly 
awaited advices from Wilson in reference to his wheat 
purchases, and in the meantime the parties who had 



SHAEP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 147 

sent forged telegrams and obtained the money, felt so 
jubilant at their success that they told a confidential 
chum at Jackson how they had operated. 

" SPIRITUALISTIC " SWINDLING. 

A class of persons who live on the amiable credulity 
of the public, find the electric fluid a useful auxiliary. 
We mean the " spiritualists," so called, whose success 
in making money from the rich and ostensibly the cul- 
tured is no less remarkable than that of the advertis- 
ing " clairvoyants," and the rest of the swindling 
sisterhood, who show a poor girl the portrait of her 
"future husband," for a "consideration" propor- 
tioned to the slender means of the ignorant victim. 
The fraud of " spiritualism " has not as yet been fully 
exposed, but enough has been discovered to make it 
plain that " mediums " are largely indebted for the 
manifestations they develop to the electric fluid. 

mr. faulkner's revelations. 

Mr. Faulkner is a philosophical instrument maker, 
doing business in London. He writes that for many 
years he has had a large sale for spirit-rapping mag- 
nets and batteries, expressly made for concealment 
under the floor, in cupboards, under tables, and even 
for the interior of the centre support of large round 
tables and boxes ; that he has supplied to the same 
parties quantities of prepared wire, to be placed un- 
der the carpets and oil-cloth, or under the wainscot 



148 SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 

and gilt beading around ceilings and rooms — in fact, 
for every conceivable place ; that all these were ob- 
viously used for spirit rapping, and the connection to 
each rapper and battery was to be made by means of 
a small button, like those used for telegraphic bell 
ringing purposes, or by means of a brass-headed or 
other nail under the carpet, of particular patterns 
known to the spiritualists. He describes these rap- 
pers as calculated to mislead the most wary, and adds 
that there are spirit-rapping magnets and batteries 
constructed expressly for the pocket, which will rap 
at any part of the room. He has also made drums 
and bells which will beat and ring at command ; but 
these two latter are not so frequently used as the 
magnets are, because they are too easily detected. 

MAGNETS FOR "SPIRIT RAPPING." 

A correspondent of the English Mechanics Magazine 
has written an account of his methods of preparing 
apparatus for " spirit-rapping " meeting. We reprint 
it in his own words : 

"In making my magnets for electric or ' spirit-rap- 
ping ' drums I proceeded as follows : I took five bars 
of J inch iron (one of them being very soft), 10 inches 
long, and filed them up. Around four of them I 
wound five layers of 32 silk-covered wire. Hemember, 
the layers were complete, and all leading the current 
in the same direction. Around the fifth I put one 
layer. Of course the bars were bent into horseshoe 
shape. The magnets were bound together so as to 



SHARP PEACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 149 

bring the fifth or last as near as possible in the center, 
and its ends to project l-64th inch beyond the others. 
A piece of zinc as thin as writing paper was next 
soldered on one pole of the centre magnet. Now for 
the keeper. It was made of a piece of soft iron l-16th 
inch thick and about 3 inches square; one side of it 
had a half of a split lead bullet soldered to the cen- 
tre. This gave the keeper weight, and prevented it 
from recoiling when it fell. I had three, and some- 
times four, guide bars on my keepers ; but I believe 
that, for all ordinary purposes, two are sufficient. 
These bars are made very smooth, and fitted into holes 
made in the brass framework supporting the magnets. 
The whole was now placed inside the drum. A word 
about this drum. In the first place, it should be a 
very common looking one ; secondly, it should be — in 
fact must be — pretty large, say at least 2 feet in diam- 
eter — the larger the better* In fastening the i electric 
drummer ' inside, do so in such a way that it will not 
affect the sound. If your magnets are of good iron — 
that is, soft and without flaws — and well made, you 
will be able to work the keeper from a depth of half 
an inch, which, when it falls on the bottom of a large 
drum, will make a pretty loud thud. Now get two of 
those brass rings with the brass screws attached, 
used for boxes, &c, and fasten them through the 
woodwork in the top of the drum, and solder the 
collected ends of the magnet wire to them. Next 
close the drum up, and it is ready. Now, suppose you 
wish to amuse a number of people in your own rooms, 



150 SHAKP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH, 

you must find a way from the battery to the center of 
the room ceiling for the wires, so that they will be 
screened from observation. Let the wires terminate 
in two hooks to catch the drum-rings. By the bye, it 
looks less suspicious to hang the drum on three hooks, 
which you can easily do. You can use a battery of 
six pint Daniell's cells, and have a contact breaker in 
another room, to be attended to by a friend ; or, if you 
can manage it, run the wires under the carpet* and 
work the contact with the heel of your boot, having a 
spring for raising the top wire when the pressure is 
off. Use one beat for ' no,' two for ' doubtful,' and 
three for 'yes.' 

SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE's EXPERIMENTS. 

This eminent gentleman exhibited some curious 
electrical experiments for the amusement of his 
friends, in which the developments were remarkably 
like those greedily devoured by the believers in spir- 
itualism who patronize the magazines which support 
that delusion. We read that in a dark room, by a 
stamp of his foot, Sir Charles produced a brilliant 
crown of electric light in mid-air, while musical instru- 
ments seemed to be played by invisible hands ; 
whereas the sounds really came from an adjoining 
room, in which the player sat, and, by an ingenious 
contrivance, were made to appear to be produced by 
the instruments before the spectators. A contest 
between science and the " spirits " in their own 
chosen feats would be almost as memorable as the 



SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 151 

celebrated competition between Moses and the ma- 
gicians. 

SHARP WORK BY OPERATORS. 

The accounts we shall give under this head may not 
be thought, perhaps, to cast the same discredit or 
guilt upon the parties involved as in the foregoing ; 
but the reader with the least moral sensibility cannot 
object to our use of the phrase " sharp work," al- 
though he might prefer the substitution of the adjec- 
tive " smart " for the one employed. The first two 
tell the manner in which two poor operators became 
capitalists by the exercise of their abundant wit, to 
speak as gently as may be. 

A youth of nineteen, who was a telegraph operator 
in Virginia City, on a salary of a hundred dollars a 
month, and who, when he could not make out German 
names in the list of San Francisco steamer arrivals, 
used to ingeniously select and supply substitutes for 
them out of an old Berlin city directory, made himself 
rich by watching the mining telegrams that passed 
through his hands, and buying and selling stocks ac- 
cordingly, through a friend in San Francisco. Once, 
when a private dispatch was sent from Virginia, an- 
nouncing a rich strike in a prominent mine, and advis- 
ing that the matter be kept secret till a large amount 
of the stock could be secured, he bought forty " feet " 
of the stock at twenty dollars a foot, and afterward 
sold half of it at eight hundred dollars a foot, and the 
rest at double that figure. Within three months he 



152 SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 

was worth $150,000 and had resigned his telegraphic 
position. 

Another operator, who had been discharged by his 
company for divulging the secrets of the office, agreed 
with a moneyed man in San Francisco to furnish him 
the result of a great Virginia mining lawsuit within an 
hour after its private reception by the parties to it in 
San Francisco. For this he was to have a large per- 
centage of the profits on purchases and sales made on 
it by his fellow conspirator. So he went, disguised as 
a teamster, to a little wa}^side telegraph office in the 
mountains, got acquainted with the operator, and sat 
in the office day after day, smoking his pipe, complain- 
ing that his team was fagged out and unable to travel 
— and meantime listening to the dispatches as they 
passed over the wire from Virginia. Finally, the pri- 
vate dispatch announcing the result of the lawsuit 
sped along the wires, and as soon as he heard it he 
telegraphed his friend in San Francisco: 

"Am tired waiting. Shall sell the team and go 
home." 

This was the signal agreed upon. The word " wait- 
ing " left out would have signified that the suit had 
gone the other way. The mock teamster's friend 
picked up a large amount of the mining stock at low 
figures before the news became public, and a fortune 
was the result. 

TAMPERING WITH CIPHER MESSAGES AND THE RESULT. 

A San Francisco, California, newspaper gives the 
following interesting account of what came of tamper- 



SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 153 

ing with cipher dispatches, in which it is shown that 
the operator and his friends did not in this instance 
fare quite so well as did the others above alluded to. 

" The business office of the Chollar Mining Company 
is in San Francisco, and its works in Virginia City, 
Nevada. Correspondence between the superintendent 
at the latter place and the business office is kept up by 
both letter and telegraph, and, to prevent any inquisi- 
tive person from obtaining the contents of the tele- 
grams in advance of their receipt by the officers of the 
company, a cipher was used. It had become apparent 
that certain brokers of San Francisco were regularly 
in receipt of reliable information concerning the con- 
dition of the mine, even before such information was 
obtained at the company's office. Just as soon as the 
superintendent in Virginia would send a cipher tele- 
gram stating that ore had been struck in any level or 
drift, these brokers would be on the street buying 
stock. "Whenever he telegraphed bad news, they 
would appear as sellers at cash, or to deliver. 

"That the trick was somewhere in the telegraph 
offices was evident, and to confirm this a plan was ar 
ranged, to which the superintendent, the office in San 
Francisco and the telegraph company were parties. 
The superintendent presented a cipher telegram, 
which, when interpreted, read after this style: 'Have 
struck the ledge; very r^h; buy 3,000 shares if you 
can.' 

"Although no one knew that this telegram was to be 
sent, and so far from the ledge having been struck the 



154 SHAKP PKACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 

workmen had not been at work in the drift, yet, before 
this cipher was received at the San Francisco office, an- 
other telegram, addressed to the suspected brokers 
had been sent and received, which contained precisely 
the same information and advice. On the strength of 
this these brokers rushed frantically out of their offices 
and commenced buying up Chollar stock at any price. 
In the Board they pursued the same plan, and finally 
loaded themselves with the stock, which rose in value 
as they bought, and sank when they ceased buying, 
their loss being estimated at between $15,000 and 
$20,000. 

"A telegraph operator in the Virginia City office was 
immediately charged with having translated the cipher 
telegram, and upon the presentation of the evidence 
acknowledged his offence, and confessed the names of 
the brokers by whom he had been subsidized." 

THE BITERS BIT. 

The following shows how the best laid plans do not 
always bring the results that we desire: 

During General McClellan's campaign in the Penin- 
sula the gold and grain speculators of a certain city 
in a Northwestern State, organized an independent 
board or club, and had a wire run in from the Western 
Union Telegraph office. 

The manager of the Western Union office soon be- 
came satisfied that there was a leak somewhere ; for 
certain persons who did not belong to the club re- 
ceived the daily news sent to this branch office as soon 



SHAKP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 155 

as the parties to whom the dispatches were addressed, 
and speculated thereon. Investigation disclosed the 
fact that a meek looking young man, an operator in a 
country office, had been imported for the occasion ; 
and, sauntering about the room with other outsiders, 
absorbed the contents of the dispatches, and instantly 
hied forth and communicated them to his employers. 

Accordingly, having arranged a bogus dispatch, de- 
feating McClellan with terrible slaughter, and sending 
gold up three or four per cent., the manager notified 
the bona fide subscribers not to act upon it, and sent 
it from the main office early in the morning. 

The gentleman from the country swallowed it, and 
his friends bought gold ad libitum of the bona fide 
members, who chuckled at the trap they had caught 
the chaps in. 

Great was the glee of the members of the board. 
They had caught the miscreants at last — and wouldn't 
they squeeze them ! 

When the regular dispatches were received, however, 
it was found that McClellan had been whipped ! and 
gold had gone up, even higher than the bogus dispatch 
stated. Tableau ! 

The country operator retired, with his friends, on 
his share of the earnings, and the bona fide board was 
many thousands of dollars poorer. 

A BANK SWINDLED BY BOGUS MESSAGES. 

A gentleman who recently returned from a business 
trip to Texas, relates how a bank was swindled out of 



156 SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 



3,000 by three telegraph operators. It is highly- 
improbable that there is much truth in the story, yet 
there is a bare possibility that such a scheme might 
be successfully carried out, and its publication may 
have the effect of putting banks and telegraph man- 
agers on their guard. 

This gentleman says that one day a well-dressed man 
of business appearance presented at one of the banks 
in Dallas, Texas, a check for $10,000 on a well-known 
New York banking house, &nd desired it cashed. 

He brought with him numerous letters of recom- 
mendation from persons with whom the bank had 
business transactions, and, so far as surface indication 
went, everything was right. But $10,000 was a con 
siderable sum to pay out, even on the very best docu- 
ments of recommendation, and the bank officers hesi- 
tated, wavered, and finally declined to cash the check. 
But the stranger was importunate. " Gentlemen," 
said he, " I came to Texas to invest this money in cot- 
ton. It is very necessary that this check should be 
cashed or I will be greatly inconvenienced. Suppose 
you telegraph to New York to this banking house ? 
Ask them about me ; I will pay all expenses." 

Nothing could be more plausible than this ; nothing 
sound more honest. So a dispatch was sent asking 
about the stranger and the check, and in a short time 
came the answer to the effect that it was all right, and 
the Dallas Bank would confer a favor on the New York 
firm by accommodating their cotton speculative friend 
and cashing the check. Still the bank officers were 



SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 157 

not satisfied, and another dispatch was sent. Again 
the answer was of a similar tenor, only probably a 
little more emphasis was added to it. This was satis- 
factory, and the check was duly cashed. 

When at night the Dallas office, as usual, came 
to compare the number of messages sent during the 
day with the number received from it by the several 
offices with which it was in communication, it was 
found that neither of the dispatches sent by the 
bank had been received at the office to which they 
should have gone, and consequently no answers 
could have been sent. It was evident that the bank 
had been swindled, but how 1 There was the mys- 
tery. The dispatches had been regularly received; 
they had come from somewhere, but where from could 
not be known. The cotton speculator had disappeared 
with the funds, and the bank officials were at their 
wits' ends. 

In a day or two the mystery was solved. Two ope- 
rators, who had been employed in the Dallas office, and 
had resigned on the day before the well-dressed 
stranger made his appearance, had gone a few miles 
out of Dallas, taken possession of an old shanty by 
the roadside, attached an instrument to the wires, and 
taken off the dispatches intended for New York. They 
had then sent pre-arranged answers. The three were 
confederates, and the operators knew about the time 
the bogus speculator would enter the bank, and when 
to attach the instruments. It was an adroit scheme 
and successfully carried out. The bank got no clew 



158 SHABP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 

to the swindlers, but learned a valuable lesson, paying 
a high price for tuition. 

TELEGRAPHIC TRAP FOR BURGLARS. 

This chapter will be fitly concluded with an account 
of a device to catch safe-burglars, the invention of a 
Mr. Barb, of London, who has patented it. The dep- 
redator no sooner begins to force open the door, drill 
the lock, or move the safe, than by so doing he sends 
a telegraphic message to the nearest police office, ex- 
hibiting the number of the safe he is attacking ; and 
this number, registered in the police-books, has oppo- 
site to it the address of the house in which the robbery 
is being effected. The invention is a very simple 
thing. An instrument termed the "communicator" 
is fitted inside the safe ; it consists of a small bolt, 
which is forced back upon a coil-spring when the 
door is closed, and which, in opening or moving the 
door, is instantly set in motion. In connection with 
this bolt wires are led through the bottom or the back 
of the safe and concealed in the wall, or inclosed 
within gas or water pipes, and, communicating with 
the street telegraph wires, are connected with the 
" alarm " and indicator at the police-station. The 
effect of tampering with the door or other part of the 
safe is to sound the alarm-bell at the police-station, 
and to exhibit on the face of the instrument the num- 
ber of the safe. Arrangements are, of course, made 
to obviate sending of alarms on ordinary and legiti- 
mate occasions of using the safe, by simply putting 



SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 159 

the apparatus out of gear at the pleasure of the owner. 
The simple operation of turning a small key is all that 
is required to render the wires available, after which 
the owner may leave his premises, perfectly confident 
that electricity will keep a tireless watch over the 
property left in its custody. 



160 THE TELEGRAPH 



THE TELEGRAPH AN UNIVERSAL INSTI- 
TUTION. 

"We need scarcely say to the intelligent reader of 
these pages that the use of the telegraph may now be 
said to be universal throughout the world. 

As an illustration of this universality, we may cite 
the transmission of a telegraphic message sent by 
Courtney, the Auburn, New York State, oarsman, to 
Trickett, a brother in his profession, then resident in 
Australia. This message was sent from Auburn to New 
York City, thence to Heart's Content, Newfoundland, 
the cable end, thence to Valentia, on the coast of 
Ireland, thence to London, then through Germany, 
Russia, Siberia, thence to Wladiwodstock, a point on 
the coast of Manchuria ; thence through Japan Sea to 
Nagasaki, on one of the Japan Islands, through the 
Yellow Sea, to Shanghai, China, thence down the coast 
of China through China Sea to Taigon, Siam, to Sin- 
gapore, Malay, thence to Batavia, on the coast of Java, 
thence to St. Darwin, on the northern coast to Aus- 
tralia, and lastly to Sydney. 

Many interesting things are told of the introduction 
of lightning as a servant in countries which do not 
rank high in the possession of that civilization which 
may be characterized as of the nineteenth century. 

SUPERSTITION IN SPAIN. 

Not long ago a London newspaper published an 
account from a town called Lorca, in Spain, described 



AN UNIVEKSAL INSTITUTION. 161 

as containing twenty thousand people, and a thriving 
commercial centre. The people in the neighborhood 
of this place firmly believe in the existence of certain 
wizards — mysterious beings, with pale faces and long 
white beards, who, hid during the day, hunt at night 
for children, whom they devour. The fat of these 
children they are said to keep sacredly for two pur- 
poses — first, as a sovereign cure for small pox ; and, 
secondly, to grease the wires of the electric telegraph, 
which is in itself a satanic invention, and would not 
work at all were it not for the lubricating oil obtained 
from the bodies of innocent little children. 

MOROCCO. 

After this who will be surprised to learn that upon 
the introduction of the electric telegraph into Mo- 
rocco it was vehemently opposed by many who looked 
at the progress of the work with religious horror ? 
The emperor threatened with death any person who 
should injure the apparatus, but the inhabitants of 
the little village of Mahovany, nevertheless, cut down 
the wires. The irate emperor straightway had the 
place surrounded by his troops, and the heads of ten 
prominent citizens were forthwith cut off and fixed on 
the telegraph poles, as an awful warning. 

CHINA. 

The first telegraph (telephone) line in China was six 
miles in length, and erected about two years ago by 
Li Hung Chang, viceroy of China, from his official 



162 THE TELEGRAPH 

residence to the Tietsen arsenal. There was no at- 
tempt at interference by the native populace, as in 
the case of telegraphs projected by foreigners ; but it is 
stated that the people were afraid of the apparatus, 
thinking that little devils run along the wire and carry 
the messages. In consequence of this superstition 
they had previously torn down a few lines put up by 
foreigners. We may add that such outrages do not 
now attend the erection of telegraphs in the Celestial 
Empire. 

INDIA. 

When the electric telegraph was established by the 
English in India, its introduction was accompanied 
with curious and difficult problems. In the first 
place, it was discovered that the air of India is in a 
state of constant electrical perturbation of the strong- 
est kind, so that the instruments there mounted went 
into a high fever, and refused to work. Along the north 
and south lines a current of electricity was constantly 
passing, which threw the needles out of gear, and 
baffled the signalers. Moreover, the tremendous 
thunder-storms ran up and down the wires, and melted 
the conductors ; the monsoon winds tore the teak- 
posts out of the sodden ground ; the elephants and 
buffaloes trampled the fallen lines into kinks and tan- 
gles ; the Delta aborigines carried off the timber sup- 
ports for fuel, and the wire or iron rods upon them to 
make bracelets and supply the Hindoo smitheries ; and 
the cotton and ice boats, kedging up and down the 



AN UNIVERSAL INSTITUTION. 163 

river, dragged the subaqueous wires to the surface. 
In addition to these graver difficulties were many of 
an amusing character. Wild pigs and tigers scratched 
their skins against the posts in the jungle, and porcu- 
pines and bandicoots burrowed them out of the ground. 
Kites, fishing eagles and hooded crows came in hun- 
dreds and perched upon the line to see what on earth 
it could mean, and sometimes were found dead by 
dozens, the victims of their curiosity. Monkeys 
climbed the posts and ran along the lines, chattering 
and dropping an interfering tail from one wire to 
another, which tended to confound conversations with 
Calcutta. 

EARLIEST TELEGRAPHS IN THE EAST. 

One of the earliest telegraph lines in Eastern coun- 
tries was a private line erected in 1859, from Teheran 
to Sultanieh, where the shah of Persia temporarily 
resided. This line, one hundred and sixty-nine miles 
long, after being used one summer, was abolished. 
Of the construction of the line from Shahrud to 
Meshed, the Persian inspector-general of telegraphs 
reported : " The workmen suffered very much from 
want of water and from heat. During the two months 
of June and July, 1876, the heat in the plains, with 
quite a cool wind blowing, rose to 140° Fahrenheit, 
while the heat in the shade once rose to 112° Fahren- 
heit. Great anxiety was felt on account of the Turco- 
mans, who were expected to attack us every day, but 
not a single Turcoman was seen." The first through 



164 THE TELEGilAxxl 

telegraph to the far East was erected by the Turkish 
government in 1863, and extended from Constantinople 
through Asia Minor, by way of Mosul, to Bagdad. In 
1864 the government of British India built a line on 
iron standards, from Bagdad to Fao, at the head of 
the Persian Gulf. This line was subsequently handed 
over to the Turks, and was deemed so unsafe, passing 
as it did through a region where the Porte had really 
little or no authority, that after the submarine cable 
from Fao to Kurachee had been laid, a telegraph line 
was put up by British officers, but at the cost of the 
Persian government, from Bushire via Theran to 
Bagdad. 

The proclamation by which the king of Burmah an- 
nounced his intention to construct a system of tele- 
graphy for the use of his subjects, is a curious example 
of Oriental official literature. It intimated that the 
"present Founder of the City of Mandalay orRutapon, 
Builder of the Royal Palace, Ruler of Sea and Land, 
Lord of the Celestial Elephant and Master of many 
White Elephants, Owner of the Sekyah or Indra's 
Weapon, Lord of the Power of Life and Death and 
Great Chief of Righteousness, being exceedingly anx- 
ious for the welfare of his people, in the year 1213 will 
introduce the telegraph — a science — the elements of 
which may be compared to thunder and lightning for 
rapidity and brilliancy, and such as his royal ancestors, 
in successive generations, had never attempted to 
subdue/' 



AN UNIVERSAL INSTITUTION. 165 

JAPAN. 

The Japanese take kindly to occidental innovations, 
the leading men in the empire interesting themselves 
in a most commendable manner to advance its civiliza- 
tion. Our own country has taken a very creditable 
share in the introduction of improvements among that 
singular nation of the far East, which, resembling its 
neighbors the Chinese in many respects, is directly the 
opposite in gladly welcoming every innovation which 
is, or promises to be, an improvement. The American 
government was the first to initiate the " Japs " in the 
operations of the field telegraph, by presenting one to 
the mikado, in the imperial presence. By the mikado's 
desire the apparatus was erected in the grounds of the 
palace, one terminus being his majesty's private study, 
and the other the pleasure pavilion which stands in the 
center of the Maple Gardens, where were assembled 
three princes of the blood, the prime minister, and a 
host of members of the privy council, to receive and 
answer the imperial messages. The working of the 
wires was entrusted to two Japanese, and when all was 
ready a message arrived at the pavilion announcing 
the presence of the mikado at the terminus in the 
study. To this announcement a most respectful mes- 
sage was returned, thanking his majesty for his gra- 
cious presence. 

Shortly afterward the message came : " The emperor 
is highly pleased with the wonderful Western inven- 
tion," and then immediately followed : " Who are in the 
pavilion, and what are you doing f " To this an answer 



166 THE TELEGRAPH 

was returned, giving the names of those present, and 
saying that they were waiting with profound venera- 
tion his majesty's gracious orders. To their intense 
embarrassment the next thing heard was : " Telegraph 
to us something amusing." As may be imagined, this 
message- caused the greatest consternation among the 
courtiers. How were they in a moment to conjure up 
anything that should be amusing, and, at the same 
time, respectful ? At length one privy councillor sug- 
gested : " This day will be memorable in the annals of 
the empire as that on which his majesty for the first 
time witnessed the working of a telegraph." But this 
was instantly rejected as being not in the least amus- 
ing. At last a youthful courtier proposed : " We all 
mean to get merry on the w T ine which we expect your 
majesty to give us." This was at once received with 
delight, and transmitted to the palace ; and to it a reply 
was immediately returned that they should not expect 
in vain, and the proceedings terminated with a message 
from the emperor expressing himself satisfied with the 
experiments, and thanking thex)fiicers who had worked 
the telegraph. At the emperor's desire the apparatus 
was left standing In the grounds, in order that he 
might learn to work it himself. 

AFRICA. 

Nothing has been more remarkable in the history of 
the last few years than the progress of discovery in 
the continent of Africa, which promises to shortly open 
it up fully to the operations of trade, aided by the 



AN UNIVERSAL INSTITUTION. 167 

steamboat, the locomotive, and the electric telegraph. 
A correspondent of the London Times, writing recently 
from Berba, in tropical Africa, says : 

" It was singular to meet with the telegraph in the 
heart of the desert between Aryab and Berba ; not the 
telegraph put up and in working order, as we see it 
in Europe, but all the appurtenances of that instru- 
ment of civilization carried on the backs of hundreds 
of camels, which, laden with coils of wire and hollow 
iron posts, trod their toilsome path through the burn- 
ing sand. Every now and then we met one of these 
poor beasts which, overweighted and broken down by 
the weight of his load, had fallen on the ground and 
been abandoned a victim to the vultures. All this 
telegraphic gear was marked " Siemens Brothers, 
London," and was en route to Khartoum, from which 
town it will be forwarded on to span the desert between 
Kordofan and Darfour. A good many lives will prob- 
ably be sacrificed before the line can be considered 
open, as the Arabs, who eagerly steal every piece of 
iron they can meet with for their spear points, have to 
be very severely punished before they leave off cutting 
down the poles. However, this difficulty once got 
over, the telegraph will be as easily worked as the one 
between Khartoum and Cairo, which, when it was first 
laid down, was continually being interrupted." 

Thus the march of improvement steadily progresses, 
and the dark places of the earth are being provided 
with the agencies which enlarge and refine life. 



168 THE WEATHER REPORTS. 



THE WEATHEK EEPOKTS. 

The recent death of Brigadier-General Albert J. 
Meyer, chief signal officer of the army, gives painful 
interest to a subject with which his name was long 
identified, one, moreover, of the greatest importance 
to the interests especially of our commercial marine 
and of agriculture. 

STORM SIGNAL SYSTEM. 

We are indebted to the pen of the deceased gentle- 
man for the best account of this system, written with 
singular clearness, exactness and completeness. The 
following passage occurs in one of General Meyer's 
annual reports, addressed to the secretary of war. He 
says: 

" Synchronous observations are taken and forwarded 
three times daily, at about 8 a.m., 6 p.m. and 12 mid- 
night, by careful observers, under military control, 
and supplied with the best instruments, namely, barom- 
eter, thermometer, hygrometer, anemometer and rain 
gauge. The observations are forwarded by telegraph, 
in the shape of a numeral cipher, the intelligence con- 
veyed in sixty words being sent in a twenty-word 
report. 

"The telegraphic transmission of the regular re- 
ports has presented a problem difficult of solution. 
The list of stations of observation and report exhibits 
a large number of stations, so located that if reports 



THE WEATHER REPuRTS. 169 

are to be both received from and sent to them two or 
three times a day without an organization of working 
especially designed for the purpose, the delays would 
be great, and the repetitions, each of which involves a 
chance of error, numerous. 

" The extensive lines of the "Western Union Tele- 
graph Company and the co-operating companies, viae 
International Ocean Cable Company and the North- 
western Telegraph Company, have been divided into 
circuits. These circuits reach in their course every 
station of observation and report. Each circuit thus 
provides for a certain group of stations. This being- 
arranged, the working forms of circuits set forth mi- 
nutely the telegraphic labor needed for the movement 
of the messages of each group ; for the exchange of 
message reports between different groups — between 
different places in different groups ; and, finally, for 
the assembling of all the dispatches in Washington." 

WHAT THE SIGNAL SERVICE DOES FOR COMMERCE AND 
AGRICULTURE. 

What specific purposes, it may be asked, are an- 
swered by the department over which General Meyer 
so ably presided ! " The Signal Service, United States 
Army, Division of Telegrams and Keports for the 
Benefit of Commerce and Agriculture," is expected to 
perform the following duties, detailed by the same 
accurate pen as the foregoing quotation : "To give 
protection to commerce by warnings on all of the 
Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, and on 



170 THE WEATHER REPORTS. 

those of the lakes ; to watch the river changes along 
their courses in the great river valleys ; to note at 
seasons the temperatures affecting canal commerce ; 
to carry telegraphic lines, by which meteorological 
reports may be had, over regions considered imprac- 
ticable for such constructions ; to maintain a system 
of connected stations on the seacoast ; to take charge 
of the recognized system of voluntary meteorological 
observations on this continent, in addition to the reg- 
ular system of the service ; to secure the co-operation 
of foreign observers in foreign countries ; to endeavor 
to aid directly all the farming population in the har- 
vesting of their crops ; and, finally, to put it in the 
power of every citizen to know each day, with reason- 
able accuracy, the approaching weather changes." 

We need not add that this gigantic intention has 
been and is carried out with a degree of efficiency 
which is surprising, and which is continually increas- 
ing. 

In order to insure its accomplishment, there is a 
thorough course of instruction given to those who 
are to be observers, both in military signaling and 
telegraphy, meteorology and the Signal Service duties 
at stations of observation and report. This is done at 
the school of instruction and practice at Fort Whipple, 
Virginia. Upon their being found efficient, the ob- 
servers are placed at stations where, in such of these 
as forward telegraphic reports, " they are required to 
take, put in cipher, and furnish, to be telegraphed 
tri-daily on each day, at different fixed times, the 



THE WEATHEB REPORTS. 171 

results of observations made at those times, and em- 
bracing in each case the readings of the barometer, 
the thermometer, the wind velocity and direction, the 
rain-gauge, the relative humidity, the character, quan- 
tity and movement of upper and lower clouds, and the 
condition of the weather." In addition to the re- 
ports supplied to the daily papers, what are called 
Farmers' Bulletins are furnished daily to such post 
offices as can be reached from convenient centers. 

THE NEW YORK STATION. 

The New York station of the Signal Service is situ- 
ated on the top story of the building occupied by the 
Equitable Life Assurance Company. It commands a 
superb view of the city and bay, and affords a place 
:or the display of the cautionary signals where they 
are visible from all parts of the harbor. The lantern, 
displaying a red light, is one hundred and ninety-five 
feet above sea-level ; while the flag — red, with a black 
centre— floats from a staff at an elevation of two hun- 
dred and thirty-five feet. 

Here is the wind vane, which needs no description, 
and also the anemometer, used to determine the velo- 
city of the wind. By electric connections with inge- 
nious but not complex machinery, this is a self -regis- 
tering instrument. The train of wheelwork makes and 
breaks an electric circuit, which registers itself on 
the paper revolving by clockwork on the recording 
cylinder. 

There is in the New York office a self-registering 



172 THE WEATHER REPORTS. 

barometer. It is a rare and splendid instrument. 
One of the cylinders, which are revolved by clockwork, 
gives the register of the barometric changes for a day, 
and the other for a period of fifteen days. As in the 
anemometer, the connections between the instrument 
itself and the recording cylinders are made by elec- 
tricity. 

Both to save time and expense, as well as to insure 
accuracy, the telegraphic reports of the service are 
made in cipher. These ciphers are easily and quickly 
read by means of a book arranged for the purpose, 
Here, for example, is the cipher report of the observa- 
tion taken at New York on a certain day: "York, Mon- 
day, Dead, Fire, Grind, Himself, 111, Ovation, View ;" 
which, translated, reads : 

York : New York (Station). 
Monday : 30.07 (Barometer corrected). 

Dead : 29.90 (corrected barometer for temperature and instru- 
mental error). 

Fire : 70° (thermometer). 

Grind : 75 per cent, (humidity). 

Himself : west, fair (wind and weather). 

Ill : 6 miles (velocity of wind). 

Ovation: \ cirrus clouds, calm (upper clouds). 

View: 67° (minimum temperature during night). 

The Signal Service is an exacting one. From the 
chief officer down to the privates, to the men in com- 
fortable quarters in the cities and to the men who 
winter on Mount Washington or Pike's Peak, the thanks 
of the whole community are due for their tireless 
service. 



TjHE WEATHER REPORTS. 173 

EARLY OPPOSITION. 

The system we have described, and which has proved 
so successful that the proportion of failures is now 
less than ten per cent., was not adopted without oppo- 
sition. No less a man than Mr. A. Watson, of Wash- 
ington, described as the originator of the idea of 
storm signals, wrote to a New York journal that the 
plan of telegrams and reports, then just adopted, had 
been abandoned by the Smithsonian Institution. 
Speaking of the storm signal system, he wrote: 

" In furtherance of this plan of telegrams and re- 
ports the department has enlisted fifty sergeants as 
meteorologists, at $900 per annum, making $45,000, 
which, added to the $15,000 appropriated by Congress, 
makes $60,000 at least, to be expended this year, 
which same reports were obtained through the tele- 
graph company by the Smithsonian Institution at no 
cost whatever. But fifty sergeants are as yet employed 
as meteorologists, and stationed at different parts of 
the country to telegraph the weather, which number 
may, perhaps, be increased to hundreds if not thou 
sands, costing a million of dollars or more per annum. 
The Western Union Telegraph Company has three 
thousand five hundred operators throughout the 
country, which, at $900 per annum, would amount to 
$3,150,000. And every one of these, by my plan or 
by any other, will have to be employed to telegraph 
storms and floods, or else employ sergeants in equal 
number. But why employ a sergeant to inform a 
telegraph operator of the state of the weather, or that 
a storm is passing in a certain direction, when that 



174 THE WEATHER REPORTS. 

agent can know it as well as the other, and has control 
of the wires to telegraph on all sides and to any dis- 
tance to assure himself of the certain extent, direction 
and intensity of the storm or flood 1 These gentlemen 
are as intelligent as any that can be found, and for a 
trifle additional compensation would do the work. It 
is plain that the station agents located at the principal 
towns are all the meteorologists that are needed, and 
are the only persons that can do the work complete 
and at a trifling cost. 

" What is needed is a sound signal, by cannon, to 
give instant and general w r arning, for many miles in 
all directions, of coming storms and floods. I predict 
that these weather reports will prove a total failure 
and a costly one at that. As the great "War Depart- 
ment and the portentous Signal Office have been seven 
months in devising and putting into operation these 
weather reports, it reminds me of the old but apt say- 
ing, ' The mountain was in labor and brought forth a 
mouse,' and in this instance the mouse is very little 
and old at that." 

The well-informed reader remembers that equally 
severe remarks were made at the expense of the loco- 
motive upon its first introduction, not to speak of 
other gigantic improvements which were made at the 
cost of influential opposition, but, like our storm 
signal system, soon justified their existence by their 
beneficent results. 

ORIGIN OF WEATHER REPORTS IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Mr. Watson's letter naturally leads to an inquiry as 
to what had been done in the way of furnishing 



THE WEATHER REPORTS. 175 

weather reports to the people of this country pre- 
viously to the formation of an army department pro- 
vided for that purpose. This subject was treated 
with success by Professor Cleveland Abbe, in the 
August number (1871) of The American Journal of 
Science, according to which the first published sugges- 
tion of the feasibility of weather reports appears to be 
that of Professor William C. Redfield, in The American 
Journal of Science for September, 1846, where he 
states that " in the Atlantic ports the approach of a 
gale may be made known by means of the Atlantic 
telegraph, which probably will soon extend from 
Maine to the Mississippi." The next mention of the 
subject is found in the Smithsonian report for 1847, 
in an article by Professor Elias Loomis, who wrote : 
" When the magnetic telegraph is extended from New 
York to New Orleans and St. Louis, it may be made 
subservient to the protection of our commerce, even 
in the present imperfect state of our knowledge of 
storms." But however frequently the idea may have 
been suggested of utilizing our knowledge by the 
employment of the electric telegraph, according to 
Professor Abbe, it is to the late Professor Henry, of 
the Smithsonian Institution, that the credit is due 
of having first actually realized this suggestion, as 
acknowledged by the Vienna Academy of Sciences. 

The practical utilization of the results of scientific 
study is well known to have been greatly furthered by 
the labors of this institution, and from the very begin- 
ning Professor Henry successfully advocated the 



176 THE WEATHER REPORTS. 

feasibility of telegraphic storm warnings. It will be 
interesting to trace the gradual realization of the 
earlier suggestions of Redneld and Loomis in the 
following extracts from the annual Smithsonian reports 
of the years indicated : 

1847. " The extended lines of telegraph will furnish 
a ready means of warning the more northern and east- 
ern observers to be on the watch for the first appear 
ance of an advancing storm. 

1848. "As a part of the system of meteorology, it 
is proposed to employ, as far as our funds will permit, 
the magnetic telegraph in the investigation of atmos- 
pherical phenomena. * * * The advantage to 
agriculture and commerce, to be derived from a knowl- 
edge of the approach of a storm by means of the 
telegraph, has been frequently referred to of late in the 
public journals — and this we think is a subject deserv- 
ing the attention of the government. 

1849. " Successful applications have been made to 
the 23residents of a number of telegraph lines to allow 
us, at a certain period of the day, the use of the wires 
for the transmission of meteorological intelligence. 
* * * As soon as they (certain instruments, etc.) 
are completed, the transmission of observations will 
commence." (It was contemplated to constitute the 
telegraph operators the observers.) 

1850. " This map (an outline wall map) is intended 
to be used for presenting the successive phases of the 
sky over the whole country at different points of time, 
as far as reported." 



THE WEATHER REPORTS. 177 

1851. " Since the date of the last report the system, 
particularly intended to investigate the nature of 
American storms immediately under the care of the 
Institution, has been continued and improved." The 
system of weather reports thus inaugurated continued 
in regular operation until 1861, when the disturbed 
condition of the country rendered impossible its fur- 
ther continuance. Meanwhile, however, the study of 
these daily morning reports had led to such a knowl 
edge of the progress of our storms, that in the report 
for 1857 Professor Henry writes : 

1857. "We are indebted to the National Telegraph 
line for a series of observations from New Orleans to 
New York, and as far westward as Cincinnati, which 
have been published in The Evening Star of this city. 
We hope in the course of another year to make such 
an arrangement with the telegraph lines as to be able 
to give warnings on the eastern coast of the approach 
of storms, since the investigations which have been 
made at the institution fully indicate the fact that, as 
a general rule, the storms of our latitude pursue a 
definite course." 

Before peace had been proclaimed, after the civil 
war, Professor Henry sought to revive the systematic 
daily weather reports, and in August, 1864, at the 
meeting of the North American Telegraph Association, 
a paper was presented by Professor Baird, on behalf 
of the Smithsonian Institution, requesting the privi- 
lege of the use of the telegraph lines, and more 
especially in order to enable Professor Henry "to 



178 THE WEATHEE REPORTS. 

resume and extend the Weather Bulletin, and to give 
warning of important atmospheric changes on our sea- 
board." In response to this communication it was 
resolved "That this association recornmend * * * 
to pass free of charge * * * brief meteorological 
reports * * * for the use and benefit of the insti- 
tution." Upon the communication of this generous 
response, preparations were at once made for the 
undertaking, and its inauguration was fixed for the 
year 1865. In January of that year, however, occurred 
the disastrous fire which seriously embarrassed the 
labors of the Smithsonian Institution for several years. 
It became necessary, therefore, to indefinitely postpone 
the work, which indeed had through its whole history 
been carried on with most limited financial means, and 
was quite dependent upon the liberal co-operation of 
the different telegraph companies. 

It will thus be seen that without material aid from 
the government, but through the enlightened policy 
of the telegraph companies, and with the assistance of 
the munificent bequest of James Smithson, " for the 
increase and diffusion of knowledge," the Smithsonian 
Institution organized a comprehensive system of 
weather reports, which, although since, as we have 
shown, superseded by one more complete and efficient, 
ought still to be held in grateful remembrance and be 
accorded a propar acknowledgment. 



THE BAIL WAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 179 



THE EAILWAY TELEGPA^HIC SYSTEM. 

One of the great daily papers of New York city 
published, some time ago, an article assuming that 
moving trains by telegraph was an American institu- 
tion, and gave a detailed account of its first application 
in support of this assumption. 

AN UNFOUNDED ASSUMPTION. 

The article stated that " the first practical applica- 
tion of telegraphic signals in moving trains was made 
on the Erie line in 1850." It added that " previous to 
that time locomotive engineers and conductors were 
distrustful, and there are several instances on record 
of their positive refusal to obey telegraphic orders, 
especially when their trains were directed to proceed 
beyond stations, to meet and pass trains going in 
opposite directions, except in cases where such orders 
were plainly expressed in printed orders upon their 
regular time tables. In 1850, however, when the Erie 
road had but a single track between Piermont and 
Elmira, it was plainly demonstrated to the superin- 
tendent (the late Charles Minot) that the telegraph 
would be a very important assistance to the road, and 
it became plainly evident that the telegraphic service 
must eventually be adopted upon all main trunk lines. 

" When the first telegraphic message was sent over 
the Erie wires a train filled with western bound pas- 
sengers was lying at Turner's Station, awaiting the 



180 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 

arrival of an eastern bound train, which, by the time 
table, should meet and pass it at that point ; but, owing 
to an accident two hundred miles west, it could not 
possibly arrive until five or six hours later. Mr. Minot 
was a passenger upon the train lying at Turner's. He 
immediately decided to test the accuracy of the tele 
graph, and make a beginning of the plan of ordering 
trains to proceed to points further in advance, and not 
further delay the stationary train, when the track was 
known to be clear as far as Port Jervis, a distance of 
one hundred and fifty miles further west Orders 
were accordingly sent over the wire to the station 
agent at Port Jervis to hold all easterly bound trains 
until the arrival of the western train. This order was 
given in order to make all safe, and prevent a collision 
in case the former should arrive at Port Jervis before 
the latter. An answer was immediately given by the 
station agent, announcing that he fully understood the 
order, and would do as directed. All appeared safe, 
and the engineer was ordered to start west ; but, to 
the astonishment of Mr. Minot, he positively refused 
to move the train from Turner's upon any such 
arrangement. Mr. Minot immediately mounted the 
locomotive, pulled out the throttle valve, and ran the 
train himself, assisted by the fireman, and reached 
Port Jervis according to programme. 

" The ice was broken, and since that time the tele- 
graph has been acknowledged as a positive necessity 
on all long railroad lines in this country. As many as 
twenty trains have since moved in opposite directions 



THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 181 

at one time upon a single division of the Erie road 
with perfect safety. The form of giving the necessary- 
directions, however, has been somewhat changed ; and 
now the conductors and engineers of each train who 
receive telegraphic directions are telegraphed the 
name of the particular point at which they are to 
meet, and answers are required from them, to ascer- 
tain whether they understand orders, before any 
movement is made." 

TRAIN DISPATCHING AN ENGLISH INVENTION. 

However gratifying this account may be to our 
national pride, and useful as embodying in its last 
sentences information of current value, so far as it 
pretends to give an account of the introduction of 
train dispatching, it is not to be trusted. Charles H. 
Haskins, now general superintendent of the North- 
western Telegraph Company at Milwaukee, and prom- 
inently connected with telephone matters in that 
section, when he was conductor upon the Michigan 
Southern Railroad, in the winter of 1849-50, tele- 
graphed to hold a boat at Monroe for his train, which 
had been detained by an accident. This is probably 
the first instance of a train order on our side of the 
Atlantic. There is no doubt that the English were the 
first to adopt telegraphic signaling on railways. An 
English pamphlet entitled "Telegraphic Railways ; or, 
the Single Way Recommended by Safety, Economy 
and Efficiency, under the Safeguard and Control of 
the Electric Telegraph, &c. By Wm. Fothergill 



182 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 

Cooke, Esq." ; published in London in 1842, has a 
large chart, illustrating fully the manner in which 
trains were to be moved on a single track by means of 
telegraphic signals or orders, given by the station 
masters from station to station. The instruments 
then in use on the Blackwall Railway are illustrated 
by diagrams, and the use of these instruments fully 
explained. 

GRAND CENTRAL DEPOT SIGNAL SYSTEM. 

At the Grand Central Depot, Forty-second Street, 
New York City, are the termini of three great rail- 
roads, and here the telegraphic signal system is carried 
to such a height of perfection as to merit particular 
description. With the exception of the interval 
between 1:10 and 3:40 in the morning, and of fifty 
minutes at noon, no period of fifteen minutes elapses 
in which some train does not depart or arrive via the 
Harlem, the Hudson River, or the New York, New 
Haven and Hartford road. One hundred and eighteen 
regular, and from ten to fifteen extra trains daily pass 
in one direction or the other over the tracks on the 
underground road between Fifty-Third Street and 
Harlem Bridge, a distance of nearly four and a half 
miles. Barely two minutes sometimes intervene be- 
tween the departure of one train and the incoming of 
another, and three trains often start at intervals of 
five minutes apart. 

It is obvious that, in order t5 prevent confusion and 
accident, the movements of each and every one of these 



THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 183 

trains, while traveling between the points named, must 
be governed with absolute certainty. Add to this that 
crowd after crowd of passengers must be admitted 
from the reception room to the outgoing cars at 
exactly the proper time, and the checking of their 
baggage must be stopped in time to insure its dispatch 
by the proper trains ; and the reader will have formed 
some faint idea of the perfect system which must exist 
for the management of the machinery of the great 
depot and its approaches. 

Located far up on the north wall of the depot, the 
view from its broad window extending over the intri- 
cate network of rails into which the various tracks 
diverge, is a small cabin. On the wall hang signal 
indicators and bells, time-tables, and a huge clock. 
On the table before the single occupant are a telegraph 
instrument, a record book, and three rows of ivory 
buttons, twenty in all. This is the dispatcher's office, 
and here, by pressing the buttons or manipulating the 
telegraph key, he controls the movement of every 
train going or coming, the buttons, though simple 
electric bells, governing everything near and about 
the depot, the key transmitting instructions to far-off 
points. By way of illustration, we suppose that one 
train is to start at 4:30, and that another will arrive at 
4:31 o'clock. It is now just 4:10, the passengers are 
congregated in the waiting-room, the cars are in place, 
and the engine, with steam up, is standing outside not 
yet attached. The dispatcher touches a button, the 
sound of a bell is heard, the heavy doors of the wait- 



184 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 

ing room fly open, and the passengers crowd upon the 
cars. Fifteen minutes elapse; the operator presses 
another button, a gong strikes in the baggage room, 
and the checking is stopped. Belated individuals who 
wish to depart by that train must go minus their bag- 
gage. Now the operator watches the clock closely ; 
three minutes pass, and then a sharp peal rings out 
from a bell close beside him. The minute hand points 
to 4:28, and the incoming train has reached Sixty-fourth 
Street and is signaling its own approach. The sound 
continues for half a minute, then stops ; the train is 
at Fifty-fifth Street, and the finger of the dispatcher 
at once presses another button. If we were on the 
arriving locomotive we would see a green disk before 
us, or at night the flash of a green light, meaning that 
everything is ready for the flying switch just outside 
the depot, by which the engine is to clear itself from 
the train, the cars entering the depot by their own 
momentum. Now it is 4:29 ; down goes another but- 
ton; a bell on a post beside the locomotive waiting 
outside rings for the engineer to back in and couple 
on. Hardly ten seconds elapse before a sharp " ting " 
calls the operator's attention to the fact that the 
pointer arm of the indicator on the wall has swung 
over from " clear " to "block." The arriving train is on 
the Fifty-third Street crossing. The clock says 4:30 ; 
again a button is pressed ; the doors of the waiting- 
room are slammed shut, there is a few seconds' delay 
for the tardy ones on the platforms to board the cars, 
and then the train moves slowly out of the depot. 



THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 185 

The indicator pointer still shows " block," and if the 
outgoing train continues its course a disastrous meet- 
ing on the crossing may result. The dispatcher 
remains passive, however, for he knows that the signal 
between that train and the crossing is normally at 
"danger," and that the engineer will certainly come to 
a stop and wait until the red disk is turned. The 
delay is but for a second, for the indicator bell almost 
instantly sounds again, the arm swings over to " clear," 
and the proper button is immediately touched. A dis- 
tant cloud of steam can be seen for a moment, and the 
outgoing train is off again. Pressing another button 
the operator restores the danger signal. The arriving 
train now rushes in, its passengers disembark, and at 
the sound of the bell from the dispatcher, a locomotive 
kept for the purpose couples on and drags the empty 
cars out of the depot. 

We have accounted for twenty-one minutes, during 
which one train has left and one arrived ; the reader 
may imagine the celerity and certainty of the work 
when we add that, within fifteen minutes spent in the 
dispatcher's cabin, three trains on three different roads 
were started and three received, all at different times 
and without the slightest confusion. 

MOVING TRAINS BY TELEGRAPHIC ORDERS. 

As the above account does not, of course, cover all 
the information properly coming under the head of 
this chapter, a statement of the general system, given 
in detail, cannot fail to be exceedingly interesting. The 



186 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 

following are the instructions issued to the employes 
of a prominent railroad: 

"Superintendents and train dispatchers are the only 
persons who are authorized to move trains by special 
orders. Before an order is given by telegraph for two 
or more trains to meet at a given station, the red 
signal to stop the trains must first be displayed at 
such meeting point ; and until this is done no order 
must be sent to either train. "When a meeting or 
passing point is to be made by two or more trains, 
the order must be definite and conclusive, and sent 
first to the conductor having the right to the road. 
If it is desired to give a train the right to run against 
a passenger train, the order is first sent to the con- 
ductor of the latter, and no order must be given the 
opposing train until the receipt of a satisfactory reply 
from the conductor of the passenger train. And in 
the same way, before giving a passenger train the 
right to the road, over a train possessing this right, 
the order should first be sent to the train holding the 
right to the road, and when a satisfactory reply has 
been received from the conductor of the train, then 
the order may be transmitted to the other train. All 
special orders for the movements of trains, whether 
sent by telegraph or otherwise, must be communicated 
in writing. When a train is abandoned, the order of 
the superintendent directing its abandonment must be 
sent by telegraph to all agents, conductors and engi- 
neers on the division. 

" No train must leave a station to run upon the time 



THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 187 

of an abandoned train, which by the regulations would 
have the right of the road, unless the conductor and 
engineer of such trains have in their possession a copy 
of the order of abandonment properly signed and 
certified to by the operator. If a train should be held 
at night at any telegraph station where there is no 
night operator, the conductor must call the day 
operator into his office for the purpose of receiving 
the orders necessary before going ahead. At stations 
where telegraphic orders are awaiting an expected 
train, operators will display a red flag by day, or a red 
light by night. When orders are duplicated to follow- 
ing trains, the understanding of each conductor and 
engineer must be separately written, and must be 
responded to by the party giving the order." 

THE TRAIN DISPATCHER AND OPERATOR. 

A moment's reflection makes it manifest that the 
position of train dispatcher is second in importance to 
no position on the road. He is frequently found to be 
also an expert operator, but it is not absolutely neces- 
sary that he should be a telegrapher. It is his duty 
to keep the localities of every train running on the 
division constantly in his mind, and issue orders to 
them at every station where they stop. Where the 
roads have only single tracks, the labors and responsi- 
bility of a train dispatcher are very great, sometimes 
as many as twenty trains, traveling in opposite direc- 
tions, being on the division at one time. All these 
have to meet and pass each other somewhere along 



188 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 

the division. The dispatcher must know just where 
to hold the train, where to send that one from and 
how far to run it, and know within a second just when 
to expect a train at a station. With his time card 
before him, containing the names of all stations and 
numbers of all trains, the dispatcher sits close to the 
operator, surrounded by clicking instruments, checks 
off train and station as arrivals are rapidly telegraphed, 
and quickly issues his orders to the operator, to be 
sent to expectant trainmen all along the division. The 
dispatcher of trains on a single track is the player of 
a gigantic game of chess, the men in which are to be 
so moved that they may never be brought in check. 
For any accident by collision on a road, the dispatcher 
is held responsible, unless it is shown that his orders 
were disobeyed. 

His companion in incessant vigilance should not be 
overlooked. One of them writes with a sprightliness 
which is surprising: "Imagine yourself stranded at an 
out-of-the-way station, right in the woods as likely as 
not, and nothing more exciting than the monotonous 
train report, with its <Os, Os, No. 3 X O. T. at 9:15 
As,' and the everlasting string of figures and ciphers 
in the car-report day in and day out, with now and 
then a variation in the shape of a wreck, which keeps 
all hands up all night sending crossings and repeating 
orders back to dispatchers with the mystic ' I under- 
stand,' etc., and see how you relish the prospect. 
Then, by way of thanks from an appreciative public, 
comes the newspaper report in the case of every other 



THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 189 

accident or so, censuring the telegraph and saddling 
the whole blame on some defenceless operator, who 
has been so badgered and worried and overworked 
that he couldn't swear to the difference between an x 
and a g if he were to be hung for it." 

A THRILLING INCIDENT. 

The following instance illustrates the responsibility 
attached to the position of train dispatcher : 

The chief dispatcher upon a prominent western road 
had ordered Miss D., operator at M. station, to "hold 
the through freight bound east for further orders." 
The sharp spiked staff, bearing its warning signal flag, 
was set in its usual conspicuous place, but just as the 
expected train rounded the curve a treacherous puff 
of. wind blew the flag to the ground, unnoticed by the 
operator, whose horror can be more easily imagined 
than described as, a moment after, the " through 
freight," with a shriek and a roar, swept past the 
station and its unseen and therefore unheeded signal, 
while a few miles ahead, on the same single track, an 
extra was speeding along in the opposite direction, 
under orders that had been given by the dispatcher 
after the signal had been set at M. Miss D. hurriedly 
notified the dispatcher of the accident. There was one 
more telegraph station for the through freight to pass 
before meeting the extra, and upon the .chance of the 
faithfulness of this one operator was hung the fate of 
the rapidly approaching trains. While the dispatcher's 
operator " called " the station rapidly and incessantly, 



190 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 

the dispatcher himself walked the floor in an agony of 
suspense, and Miss D. could see nothing, hear nothing 
but the rapid clicking of the instrument burning itself 
into her very brain and nerves. The moments passed 
like hours. For some minutes there was no response, 
but at last came the welcome " aye, aye." One moment 
more of breathless suspense while the question is put: 
"Has engine No. —passed?" "Not yet." "Thank 
God !" exclaims the dispatcher, and gives the necessary 
orders to avert the impending calamity. 

THE ANGUISH AND SUSPENSE OF AN OPERATOR WHO " FORGOT." 

Fortunately it is seldom that an operator, however 
harassed he may be with other cares and responsibili- 
ties, neglects to deliver the orders he has received for 
a train. That he should occasionally slip in this par- 
ticular would be no more than could be expected from 
mortal beings who have more to look after than any 
one man should. At many stations the operator, in 
addition to his regular telegraphic duties, is called 
upon to sell tickets, check baggage, attend to express 
and freight matters, and the like, which the public in 
their intercourse with him too often seem to entirely 
overlook. Whenever a case of neglect in connection 
with a tram order does occur, an example is made of 
the man by instantly dismissing him. An operator 
who was thus discharged writes as follows of his feel- 
ings after he had found that the train had gone by 
which he should have signaled to stop : 

" I forgot, and in doing so have forfeited the respect 



THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 191 

of my employers as well as my position. I am not one 
who is in the habit of forgetting, and to forget when 
scores of lives depend on my memory and carefulness 
nakes me shudder when I think what might have 
come of my forgetting this time. 

" It was the first time in my life that I had made a 
serious mistake. I received orders for the east-bound 
passenger train yesterday to look out for a freight 
crain ahead of them to the next station east of me, and 
I forgot to put my signal flag out to stop the passen- 
ger train. Operators know what my mistake means. 
It means, sometimes, death to the unfortunate passen- 
gers, but, thank God, in this case no harm came of it, 
for the freight train had a good start and got safely in 
on the side-track before the passenger train came 
along. Minutes were years to me while waiting for 
the signal from the other station that would decide 
whether all were safe or not. My heart was in my 
mouth every time the line would open, and with fear 
I listened to every stroke of the sounder. At last the 
welcome "rep." G. came, and I knew everything was 
safe. I could no longer bear up under the enormous 
strain that my nerves had been subjected to for fifty 
minutes. I raised myself from the instrument table, 
staggered to the door, and but for the fresh air woifcld 
have fainted. My wife saw me and was frightened to 
see my pallid face. The cold perspiration stood out 
on my forehead, my hands trembled as with palsy, and 
my breath came in gasps as I tried to regain posses- 
sion of myself. 



192 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 

" Those who have passed through this ordeal can 
imagine my feelings ; the awful dread which comes 
over one when the discovery is first made that a train 
has passed which should have been stopped. Hideous, 
laughing demons dance before one's imagination, in 
seeming mockery of the anguish that is dragging one 
almost to madness. In imagination you see the 
mangled and lifeless forms that but a moment ago 
passed you, full of happiness and radiant in anticipa- 
tion of meeting dear ones at their destination. 

" The remorse, the utter helplessness that overtakes 
one in such a mement is indescribable. It is a time 
the memory of which will haunt me through life. 
Amid the joys and pleasures that may await me in the 
future, there will ever be a spot as black as midnight 
darkness. My hand trembles when I take hold of the 
key that may deal death and destruction to the many 
lives entrusted to my care." 

A NOBLE RAILROAD OPERATOR. 

An account has reached us from Parker City, Penn- 
sylvania, of an operator whose presence of mind and 
firm persistency saved probably many lives. She was 
employed at Sligo Junction, and one evening wa c 
awaiting the arrival of an eastern-bound train, when a 
long freight, numbering fifty-five heavily laden cars, 
bound westward, slacked up at the station, which the 
conductor entered. After registering he shouted " all 
right " to his engineer, and was about to get on his 
train when the operator, remembering something 



THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 193 

caught from the subtle click of her instrument, rushed 
out and bade him stop his train, which was slowly 
moving away. He replied that they had the right of 
way. "No," said the operator, "I heard an order 
passing over the wire, telling you to remain here until 
the arrival of the Sligo passenger train, which you will 
certainly meet, because it is somewhere between this 
and the next station westward. This order should 
have been given you at Troy " (a station just passed by 
the freight). The conductor was persuaded to enter 
the office by the operator, who, going to the key, 
asked the superintendent at Brookville if such an 
order had been sent to Troy. " Yes," was the reply. 
The careless operator at Troy had failed to deliver 
this important order, but the carefully trained ear of 
the female in charge at Sligo Junction had caught it, 
and the result was the hasty switching of that long- 
freight from the main track to the side. Just as this 
was done a shrill whistle announced the coming of the 
Sligo train, the headlight of which threw a glare along 
the track. 

Thankful were the passengers, conductor, engineer, 
and brakemen that their lives were in the hands of one 
who fully realized the fact. "For," said the engineer 
of the freight, " I could not have stopped my heavy 
train in less than a mile. Our escape would have been 
impossible." The conductor and engineer of the pas- 
senger train feelingly caught the operator's hand and 
thanked her for preventing an accident which would 
have certainly cost them their lives. The superintend- 



194 THE BAIL WAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 

ent at Brookville telegraphed his thanks, and in a few 
days sent a letter of commendation, inclosing a bank 
check, with the thanks of the officers of the road, as a 
mark of their appreciation of her care and attention to 
business. 

NEW INVENTIONS IN RAILROAD SIGNALING. 

An invention has been secured by patent in this 
country, by a Swede, whose apparatus is an automatic 
railway signal which enables the station officers to 
know the precise position of any train at any time ; it 
gives sound signals to the engineer and at the station 
before the train enters, thus enabling switches to be 
cleared and arranged in time to prevent accidents. 
If two trains approach each other, whether running in 
the same or opposite directions, the engineers of both 
trains receive signals in time to prevent collisions, and 
the station people are at the same time automatically 
informed of the position of both trains. Any train 
may be stopped at certain points on the road where 
" contacts " are arranged upon telegraphic communi- 
cation with the stations at both ends of the route, and 
two trains may in the same manner telegraph to each 
other. A complete record is automatically kept at 
each station of the speed of each train, and of the 
exact time it enters or leaves the station. Stop-signals 
may be sent at any time from the stations to any train 
while moving. The apparatus may be arranged to send 
stop or danger signals to trains approaching swinging 
bridges which are not properly locked and fastened. 



THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 195 

The Union Electric Signal Company of Boston, 
Massachusetts, lately exhibited the practical working 
of a new method of automatic railway signals, known 
as Robinson's Contact Circuit Rail system: The ex- 
periments w r ere made at a street-crossing of the 
Boston and Providence Railroad, near Boston, in the 
presence of a number of gentlemen interested in Amer- 
ican railway matters. The system tested on this 
occasion differs essentially from other systems of 
signaling in use, in that the rails instead of wires are 
employed for conducting an electric current. They 
are divided into sections, according to curves and 
other contingencies. At one end of each section is 
placed a small battery, one pole of which is connected 
to either rail, and at the other end of the section is an 
electro-magnet, the coils of w^hich are connected to the 
two rails, thereby establishing a constant metallic 
circuit through the rails and magnet. At either end 
of the section is the standard bearing the signal, which 
is connected w T ith the circuit. When a train enters 
upon the section, the leading wheels and axle of the 
engine instantly short-circuit the current, the magnet 
is demagnetized, and on the latter leaving its armature 
the signal is mechanically thrown to danger, where it 
remains as long as the wlieels are on the section, and 
when they pass off the signal goes back to safety, and 
the section of the line is open to receive another train. 
By this means the rear of a train on a road equipped 
with these signals will always be safely guarded. 
Actual experience has demonstrated that the rails are 



196 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 

vastly superior as conductors to any surrounding 
media, and that the electricity will adhere to them in 
preference to passing off to earth, despite rain or snow. 
After the operation of the system had been witnessed 
for upward of an hour, as the various up and down 
trains passed the crossing, it was pronounced unani- 
mously to be an unqualified success, and calculated to 
be of great service in perfecting the safety appliances 
which all the American railways will ere long be com- 
pelled to use. 

Eight here is the place to say that a Swiss inventor 
envelopes the driving axle of locomotives in coils of 
insulated copper wire, and by the passage of an electric 
current converts the wheels into powerful magnets 
with increased adhesion to the rails. 

A new system of telegraphic signals has been intro- 
duced by way of experiment at the Boston end of the 
Lowell Railroad. A box in the train house of the 
passenger depot on Causeway street is connected by 
wires with the office of the ticket master, who, when a 
train starts, by the pressure of a finger upon a little 
instrument, displays at an aperture in front of the box 
a red flag if in the day, or if at night time the red sides 
of a lantern to view. When the engine reaches the 
rail directly in front of the station at East Cambridge 
the e]ectric current is opened, and the red flag disap- 
pears or the lantern shows a white light. A bell is 
also rung at the same moment in the ticket office. If 
this system works well, and is adopted along the line 
generally, it may easily be so perfected that knowledge 



THE BAIL WAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 197 

of the position of a train may be known at any station 
which it has just left, and thereby insure comparative 
safety to passengers. 

Many accidents have occurred from trains breaking 
apart, the engineer not being notified of the fact. 
There has long been needed some connection through- 
out the train more effective than the old-fashioned 
bell-rope, which, though perhaps sufficient for passen- 
ger trains, is not applicable to freight. Major V. B. 
Bell has brought out an invention, especially adapted 
to freight trains, which promises to secure the desired 
end. It is simply a train telegraph. In one corner of 
the caboose is a battery, differing from common tele- 
graph batteries in being constructed of leather and 
copper, and being closely boxed — connecting with an 
alarm in a small box on the side of the caboose and 
with another on the engine ; wires run beneath all the 
cars, and the connection is established between the 
cars by flexible copper wires, covered, which can be 
detached, being held in their places by any single 
spring catch — the common spring clothes-join being 
used at present. When the train breaks, these cords 
are unfastened, the connection is broken, the alarm is 
sounded in the caboose, and the engine and the train 
is stopped. This is the principal object of the inven- 
tion ; but by means of it the conductor can, by simply 
moving the key of the alarm box, signal the engineer 
to back, go ahead, etc. A thorough test of it was 
recently made by practical railway operatives and 
managers, and the results are pronounced satisfactory. 



198 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 

Though the machinery was necessarily imperfect — 
being all new and untried — the inventor was able to 
answer all objections and explain how all proposed 
difficulties may be easily surmounted. The apparatus 
would cost about seventy-five dollars. 

Nervous people will appreciate the announcement 
that locomotive whistling promises to be an abomina- 
tion of the past. At Poughkeepsie, in this State, it is 
to be superseded by a bell worked by electricity, 
which will be set up in the depot. When the train 
arrives within a mile of the station, the bell will ring 
until it gets to the depot. The danger signal is thus 
given, and the waste of steam is avoided, to say 
nothing of the racket. 

It may not be entirely out of place to close this 
sub- section with the statement that an interestr • ^' .im- 
plication of electricity, in connection with a tame for 
supplying locomotives with water, is now in operation 
at Buda Station, on the Chicago, Burlington and 
Quincy Kailroad. The steam pump which supplies 
the tank is on the bank of a small stream half a mile 
distant, and entirely out of sight. A float is arranged 
so that if the water is drawn off to a level more than 
two or three inches below the top of the tank a circuit 
is closed, connecting by wires with the pump house. 
This sets an alarm bell ringing within hearing of the 
engineer, who then starts his pump, and runs it till 
the tank is full, of which due notice is given by the 
cessation of the alarm. This arrangement was devised 
by Fred. H. Tubbs, then superintendent of telegraphs 



THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 199 

on the C. B. and Q. E. K., but now superintendent of 
the American Union Telegraph Company at Chicago, 
and has worked for a long time in the most satisfactory 
manner. 

FUN ABOUT SIGNALING. 

With the American propensity to relieve overtaxed 
energies with harmless nonsense, everybody is familiar, 
as all commend it. The subject of this chapter has 
proved most fertile in nonsensical suggestions and 
funny yarns, but we resist the temptation to enlarge 
it excepting by a little of such material. 

ROUSING THE SLEEPING CAR PORTER. 

From the West we hear of a gentleman lately 
returned to Milwaukee from a trip, who tells of a 
new use that has been found for electricity that even 
beats the telephone or the phonograph. It is a device 
by which the colored sleeping car porter can be 
awakened at every station. It is well known that the 
normal condition of the colored person is to be asleer. 
The colored person goes to sleep on the slightest 
provocation. In the ordinary affairs of life this ec- 
centricity can be overlooked and provided for, but the 
business of sleeping car porters has baffled scientists 
to devise a method of keeping them awake. A porter 
can be kept awake by constantly whistling, but this 
practice has a tendency to awaken passengers who do 
not desire to be awakened. The inventor has adapted 
electricity to this branch of railroading in such a man- 



200 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 

ner that the colored person's usefulness is increased, 
at very little expense. It is desirable that the porter 
should be awake at each station where the sleeper 
stops, in order to snatch the small baggage of those 
who get aboard, and throw it under the seats. 

A wire runs from the engine under the cars, and is 
connected with an electric disk in the cushion of the 
hind seat of the sleeper, where the colored man is apt 
to congregate, and at the same moment that the engi- 
neer rings the bell on approaching a station, he 
touches the thingumbob attached to the wire. Sup- 
pose the porter to be seated in his accustomed place, 
peacefully dreaming the happy hours away. His head 
is thrown back, his eyelids are in repose, his mouth is 
open like an approach to a tunnel. He is sitting on 
the electric disk. The hand of the engineer playfully 
touches the cornucopia, the lightning flashes back to 
the sleeper, a charge of electricity goes meandering 
up the spinal column of the African, he is raised 
toward the roof of the car, and when he comes down 
he is wide awake and ready for business. 

ANOTHER ANTI-SLEEPING INVENTION. 

It is said that at a certain station on the Philadel- 
phia and Erie Eailroad, the company has a new night 
telegraph operator who, if inclined to slumber, is too 
ingeniously wide awake to be caught napping at his 
post. Recently he was seized with drowsiness, which 
he could not shake off. As it was his duty to report 
all passing trains, he dared not yield, and yet could 



THE BA1LWAY TELEGKAPHIC SYSTEM. 201 

not resist. That mother of invention, necessity, at 
length suggested an alarm signal, which he proceeded 
to put in operation by suspending a scuttle full of 
coal by means of a cord which was passed through the 
keyhole of his office door, and fastened across the 
track at the requisite elevation. Mr. Operator then 
resigned himself to rosy dreams, which were finally 
interrupted by a passing train, the engine of which 
snapped the cord, causing the coal-scuttle to come 
down with a rattle-te-bang that would have aroused 
even a sleeping New York policeman. Another young 
operator, some thirty miles up the road, let a train 
slip by him the same night, and applied to the in- 
ventor of the coal-scuttle alarm to know when the 
train passed his station. No answer was vouchsafed, 
the inventor remarking : " Why don't the blockhead 
get the right to use my patent?" 



202 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 



ELECTEICITY AND LIFE. 

Very little is known of electricity, perhaps it may 
truly be said nothing beyond what has been observed 
of its effects. What it is in itself, its relations or 
possible oneness with heat and light, are unknown. 
Professor Faraday, on one occasion, in speaking on 
the nature of electricity before the British Association 
for the Advancement of Science, thus expressed his 
views: "There was a time when I thought I knew 
something about the matter; but the longer I live 
and the more carefully I study the subject, the more 
convinced I am of my total ignorance of the nature 
of electricity." Enough of its operations have been 
seen and noted, however, to suggest that its possible 
usefulness is beyond present calculation and even 
conception. Among these is the influence it possesses 
in the stimulation and support of both animal and 
vegetable life, including the highest development of 
the first named, so far as we know, in the human 
being. Every reader is, of course, acquainted with 
the fact that the electric battery is extensively em- 
ployed as a remedial agent, and that experiments 
are constantly in progress with the view to determine, 
if possible, the exact value of electricity in therapeu- 
tics, and in the case of children, animals and plants. 
A brief statement of selected information on the 



ELECTRICITY AND LIFE 203 

general subject will be both interesting and valu- 
able. 

THE ELECTRIC GIRL OF LA PERRIERE. 

The extraordinary phenomena we are about to relate 
occurred in the commune of La Perriere, situated in 
the department of Orne, France, in January, 1846. 
They seem to be properly authenticated, and are not 
incredible in themselves. The astonishing electrical 
force exerted by the electric eel, found in some rivers 
of South America, is familiar to everybody, and shows 
the force which can be employed by the animal or- 
ganism when charged, so to speak, with the electric 
fluid. 

Angelique Cottin, a peasant girl fourteen years of 
age, robust and in good health, but very imperfectly 
educated and of limited intelligence, lived with her 
aunt, the widow Loisnard, in a cottage with an 
earthen floor, close to the chateau of Monti-Mer, 
inhabited by its proprietor, M. de Faremont. 

The weather for eight days previous to the fifteenth 
of January, 1846, had been heavy and tempestuous, 
with constantly recurring storms of thunder and 
lightning, and the atmosphere w T as charged with elec- 
tricity. 

On the evening of that fifteenth of January, at eight 
o'clock, while Angelique, in company with three other 
young girls, was at work as usual in her aunt's cot 
tage, weaving ladies' silk-net gloves, the frame, made 
of rough oak and weighing about twenty-five pounds, 
to which was attached the end of the warp, was upset 



204 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE 

and the candlestick on it thrown to the ground. The 
girls, blaming each other as having caused the acci- 
dent, replaced the frame, relighted the candle and 
went to work again. A second time the frame was 
thrown down Thereupon the children ran away, 
afraid of a thing so strange, and, with the super- 
stition common to their class, dreaming of witchcraft. 
The neighbors, attracted by their cries, refused to 
credit their story So returning, but with fear and 
trembling, two of them at first, afterward a third, 
resumed their occupation, without the recurrence of 
the alarming phenomenon. But as soon as the girl 
Cottin, imitating her companions, had touched her 
warp, the frame agitated again, moved about, was 
upset, and then thrown violently back. The girl was 
drawn irresistibly after it, but as soon as she touched 
it, it moved still further away. 

Upon this the aunt, thinking, like the children, that 
there must be sorcery in the case, took her niece to the 
parsonage of La Perriere, demanding exorcism. The 
curate, an enlightened man, at first laughed at her 
story ; but the girl had brought her glove with 
her, and fixing it to a kitchen chair, the chair, like 
the frame, was repulsed and upset, without being 
touched by Angelique. The curate then sat down 
on the chair ; but both chair and he were thrown 
to the ground in like manner. Thus practically con- 
vinced of the reality of a phenomenon which he could 
not explain, the good man reassured the terrified aunt 
by telling her it was some bodily disease and, very 
sensibly, referred the matter to the physicians. 



ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 205 

The next day the aunt related the above particulars 
to M. de Faremont ; but for the time the effects had 
ceased. Three days later, at nine o'clock, that gentle- 
man was summoned to the cottage, where he verified 
the fact that the frame was at intervals thrown back 
from Angelique with such force that, when exerting 
his utmost strength and holding it with both hands, 
he was unable to prevent its motion. He observed 
that the motion was partly rotary, from left to right. 
He particularly noticed that her feet did not touch 
the frame, and that when repulsed she seemed drawn 
irresistibly after it, stretching out her hands as if 
instinctively toward it. It was afterward remarked 
that when a piece of furniture or other object thus 
acted upon by Angelique was too heavy to be moved, 
she herself was thrown back, as if by the reaction of 
the force upon her person. 

On the twenty-first of January the phenomena in- 
creased in violence and in variety. A chair on which 
the girl had attempted to sit down, though held by 
three strong men, was thrown off, in spite of their 
efforts, to several yards distance. Shovels, tongs, 
lighted firewood, brushes, books, were all set in mo- 
tion when the girl approached them. A pair of scissors 
fastened to her girdle was detached and thrown into 
the air. 

On the twenty-fourth of January, M. de Faremont 
took the child and her aunt in his carriage to the small 
neighboring town of Mamers. There, before two 
physicians and several ladies and gentlemen, articles 



206 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 

of furniture moved about on her approach. And there, 
also, the following conclusive experiment was tried by 
M. de Faremont : 

Into one end of a ponderous wooden block, weighing 
upward of a hundred and fifty pounds, he caused a 
small hook to be driven. To this he made Angelique 
fix her silk. As soon as she sat down and her frock 
touched the block, the latter was instantly raised three 
or four inches from the ground ; and this was repeated 
as many as forty times in a minute. Then, after suf- 
fering the girl to rest, M. de Faremont seated himself 
on the block, and was elevated in the same way. Then 
three men placed themselves upon it, and were raised 
also, only not quite so high. "It is certain," says M. 
de Faremont, "that I and one of the most athletic 
porters of the Halle could not have lifted that block 
with the three persons seated on it." 

Dr. Verger came to Mamers to see Angelique, whom, 
as well as her family, he had previously known. On 
the twenty-eighth of January, in the presence of the 
curate of Saint Martin and of the chaplain of the Bel- 
lesme hospital the following incidents occurred. As 
the child could not sew without pricking herself with 
the needle, nor use scissors without wounding her 
hands, they set her to shelling peas, placing a large 
basket before her. As soon as her dress touched the 
basket, and she reached her hand to begin work, the 
basket was violently repulsed, and the peas projected 
upward and scattered over the room. This was twice 
repeated, under the same circumstances. Dr. Lemon- 



ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 207 

nier, of St. Maurice, testifies to the same phenomenon, 
as occurring in his presence and in that of the procu 
rator royal of Mortagne ; he noticed that the left hand 
produced the greater effect. He adds that he and 
another gentleman having endeavored, with all their 
strength, to hold a chair on which Angelique sat down, 
it was violently forced from them, and one of its legs 
broken. 

On the thirtieth of January, M. de Faremont tried 
the effect of insulation. When, by means of dry glass, 
he insulated the child's feet and the chair on which she 
sat, the chair ceased to move, and she remained per- 
fectly quiet. M. Olivier, government engineer, tried 
a similar experiment, with the same results. A week 
later, M. Hebert, repeating this experiment, discovered 
that insulation of the chair was unnecessary; it sufficed 
to insulate the girl. Dr. Beaumont, vicar of Pin-la 
Garenne, noticed a fact, insignificant in appearance 
yet quite as conclusive as were the more violent mani- 
festations, as to the reality of the phenomena. Having 
moistened with saliva the scattered hairs on his own 
arm, so that they lay flattened, attached to the 
epidermis, when he approached his arm to the left 
arm of the girl, the hairs instantly erected themselves. 
M. Hebert repeated the same experiment several times, 
always with a similar result. 

M. Olivier also tried the following : With a stick of 
sealing-wax which he had subjected to friction, he 
touched the girl's arm, and it gave her a considerable 
shock ; but on touching her with another similar stick 



208 ELECTRICITY AND LITE. 

that bad not been rubbed, she experienced no effect 
whatever. Yet when M. de Faremont, on the nine- 
teenth of January, tried the same experiment with a 
stick of sealing-wax and a glass tube, well prepared 
by rubbing, he obtained no effect whatever. So also 
a pendulum of light pith, brought into close prox- 
imity to her person at various points, was neither 
attracted nor repulsed in the slightest degree. 

Toward the beginning of February, Angelique was 
obliged for several days to eat standing ; she could 
not sit down on a chair. This fact Dr. Verger repeat- 
edly verified. Holding her by the arm to prevent 
accident, the moment she touched the chair it was 
projected from under her, and she would have fallen 
but for his support. At such times, to take rest, she 
had to sit herself on the floor, or on a stone provided 
for the purpose. 

On one occasion, " she approached," says M. de 
Faremont, " one of those rough, heavy bedsteads used 
by the peasantry, weighing, with the coarse bed- 
clothes, some three hundred pounds, and sought to 
lie down on it. The bed shook and oscillated in an 
incredible manner ; no force that I know of is capable 
of communicating to it such a movement. Then she 
went to another bed, which was raised from the ground 
on wooden rollers, six inches in diameter ; and it was 
immediately thrown off the rollers." All this M. de 
Faremont personally witnessed. 

On the evening of the second of February, Dr. 
Verger received Angelique into his house. On that 



ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 209 

day and the next upward of one thousand persons 
called to see her. The constant experiments, which 
on that occasion were continued into the night, so 
fatigued the poor girl that the effects were sensibly 
diminished. Yet even then a small table brought near 
to her Avas thrown down so violently that it broke to 
pieces. It was of cherry-wood and varnished. 

"In a general way," says Dr. Beaumont-Chardon, "I 
think the effects were more marked with me than with 
others, because I never evinced suspicion, and spared 
her all suffering ; and I thought I could observe that, 
although her powers were not under the control of her 
will, yet they were greatest when her mind was at 
ease and she was in good spirits." It appeared, also, 
that on waxed or even tiled floors, but more especially 
on carpets, the effects were much less than on an 
earthen floor like that of the cottage where they orig- 
inally showed themselves. 

At first wooden furniture seemed exclusively af- 
fected ; but at a later period metal also, as tongs and 
shovels, though in a less degree, appeared to be sub- 
jected to this extraordinary influence. When the 
child's powers were the most active, actual contact 
was not necessary. Articles of furniture and other 
small objects moved, if she accidentally approached 
them. 

Up to the sixth of February she had been visited by 
more than two thousand persons, including distin- 
guished physicians from the towns of Bellesme and 
Mortagne and from all the neighborhood, magistrates, 



210 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 

lawyers, ecclesiastics and others. Some gave her 
money. Then, in an evil hour, listening to the mer- 
cenary suggestion, the parents conceived the idea that 
the poor girl might be made a source of pecuniary 
gain ; and notwithstanding the advice and remonstrance 
of her true friends — M. de Faremont, Dr. Verger, M. 
Hebert and others — her father resolved to exhibit her 
in Paris, where the phenomena continued for a time 
and then ceased. 

Dr. Tanchon says that a chair which he held firmly 
with both hands was forced back as soon as she 
attempted to sit down; a middle-sized dining-table 
was displaced and repulsed by the touch of her dress ; 
a large sofa, on which Dr. Tanchon was sitting, was 
pushed violently to the wall as soon as the child sat 
down beside him. The doctor remarked that when a 
chair was thrown back from under her, her clothes 
seemed attracted by it, and adhered to it until it was 
repulsed beyond their reach ; that the power was 
greater from the left hand than from the right, and 
that the former was warmer than the latter, and often 
trembled, agitated by unusual contractions ; that the 
influence emanating from the girl was intermittent, 
not permanent, being usually most powerful from 
seven till nine o'clock in the evening, possibly influ- 
enced by the principal meal of the day, dinner, taken 
at six o'clock ; that when the girl was cut off from 
contact with the earth, either by placing her feet on 
a non-conductor or merely by keeping them raised 
from the ground, the power ceased, and she could 



ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 211 

remain seated quietly ; that, during the paroxysm, if 
her left hand touched any object, she threw it from 
her as if it burned her, complaining that it pricked 
her, especially on the wrist ; that, happening one day 
to accidentally touch the nape of her neck, the girl 
ran from him crying out with pain ; and that repealed 
observation assured him of the fact that there was, in 
the region of the cerebellum, and at the point where 
the superior muscles of the neck are inserted in the 
cranium, a point so acutely sensitive that the child 
would not suffer there the lightest touch ; and, finally, 
that the girl's pulse, often irregular, usually varied 
from one hundred and five to one hundred and 
twenty beats a minute. 

These curious phenomena, which were given in the 
Atlantic Monthly in. the year 1866, created great interest. 
A case very similar to that of Angelique Cottin 
occurred in the month of December previous, in the 
person of a young girl, not quite fourteen years old, 
apprenticed to a colorist in the Rue Descartes, Paris. 
The occurrences were quite as marked as those in 
the Cottin case. The professor, seated one day near 
the girl, was raised from the floor, along with the 
chair on which he sat. There were also occasional 
knockings. The phenomena commenced December 
2d, 1845, and lasted twelve days. 

A WESTERN ELECTRICAL LADY. 

The case of an American lady, resident at Nevada 
City, is interesting to scientific men, and not less so 



212 



ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 



to those of us who remember our boyish freak ( ( 
producing electric phenomena by rubbing poor pussy' 
coat headwards. For many years, Ave are told, tin 
subject of this paragraph was afflicted with acute nei 
ralgic pains in various parts of the body, and, hopin- 
to find relief, resorted to the use of an electrical bat- 
tery. She used the apparatus for six months, bu- 
found no relief. At that time nothing was noted of 
musual character as the result, and although several 
months elapsed, it was only when cold weather com 
menced that any extraordinary symptoms followed. 
One night after this the lady had occasion to enter a 
dark room and pick up a woolen coat that was lying 
there. As she did she was both surprised and fright- 
ened to observe a bright light surrounding the hand 
that held the garment. At the same time the electric- 
currents passed, along the arm, shocking her quite 
severely. When her husband was informed of the 
fact he discredited its reality, thinking there was more 
imagination than anything else in it. So the next 
evening, to convince the incredulous better half, she 
turned the gas out in the room where they were sit- 
ting, and letting her hair down began combing it. A 
remarkable display of light was the result. The 
sparks flew around in every direction, and. there was a 
sharp, cracking sound as the teeth of the comb passed 
between the Lairs. In laying her hands upon iron the 
lady did not observe the peculiarities referred to ; but 
the instant she touched a woolen cloth the fire began 



ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 213 

to fly, and the shocks followed one another in rapid 
succession. 

ELECTRICITY ON THE DINNER TABLE. 

An experimentist, Dr. Gladstone, says that in daily 
life weak electrical currents are at work where their 
presence is often little suspected : for instance, sup- 
posing a person at dinner to have a silver fork in one 
hand and a finger upon the steel part of a knife held 
in the other, it follows that, when he plunges the 
knife and fork into a beefsteak, two dissimilar metals 
are thereby placed in a moist conducting substance, 
consequently a voltaic circuit is formed, and an electric 
current flows through the body of the individual 
between the knife and fork. To prove that this was 
really the case, he connected a reflecting galvanometer 
with the knife and fork by means of wires ; he then 
proceeded to cut a beefsteak, and the current thus 
generated deflected the needle of the galvanometer, so 
that the spot of light which it reflected was seen 
traveling along the screen by all the observers. 

FEELING PULSE BY TELEGRAPH. 

While lecturing, some time ago, Dr. Upham, of 
Salem, Massachusetts, in order to explain to his audi- 
ence the variations of the pulse in certain diseases, 
caused the lecture room to be placed in telegraphic 
communication with the city hospital of Boston, dis- 
tant fifteen miles, and by means of special apparatus 
the various pulse beats were exhibited by a vibrating 



214 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 

ray of magnesium light upon the wall. These experi- 
ments have since been repeated at Paris with success. 

DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH BY ELECTRICITY. 

Dr. Poggioli recently read a paper at a meeting of 
the British Academy of Medicine, on the "Physical and 
Intellectual Development of Youth by Electricity/' 
He remarked that De Candolle had quoted experi- 
ments to show that vegetation is much richer and 
quicker in its growth when electrified than otherwise. 
Seeds subjected to the action of this fluid would yield 
better produce than others, and in a shorter time. 
Starting from these data, Dr. Poggioli conceived the 
idea that a similar action might be proved to exist in 
the animal kingdom, and especially in the case of 
young subjects. He adduced ^.Ye instances of chil- 
dren, varying between the ages of four and sixteen, 
and having all attained a remarkable development, 
both in a physical and an intellectual sense. Among 
these there was a child which might be considered a 
pLenomeiLon of deformity and stupidity, and that 
under the influence of electricity grew three centi- 
metres in a single month, and has since been always 
first, instead of last, in his class. From this Dr. Pog- 
gioli concludes that the electric fluid exercises a direct 
influence over the physical and intellectual develop- 
ment of young subjects. 

ELECTRICITY IN SURGERY AND DENTISTRY. 

It is stated that when General Kilpatrick returned 
from Chili, a few years ago, he had a remarkable 



ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 215 

operation performed by a physician in New York, who 
removed a large fleshy formation from the general's 
neck by filling it full of needles and then attaching a 
galvanic battery to it. Ten minutes after the current 
of electricity was let on, the bunch had entirely disap- 
peared. 

Again, we learn that a Philadelphia dentist has 
invented a little machine for driving the filling into 
teeth, which works by electro-magnetism. The ham- 
mer, or " plunger," working within a small cylinder, 
may be made to deliver its blows at the rate of several 
hundred strokes a minute — so rapidly, indeed, as 
almost to produce the impression of a continuous 
pressure. A battery large enough to work the appa- 
ratus costs for running it about twenty cents a day. 

ELECTRICITY IN MEDICINE. 

At a recent sitting of the French Academy of Sci- 
ences, M. Scoutettensentin a paper on certain further 
researches of his for the purpose of proving that the 
electrical state of mineral waters is the chief cause of 
their activity. He contends that these waters, on 
issuing from the earth, are in a state of peculiar 
activity owing to certain chemical reactions which 
produce dynamic electrical phenomena ; a fact which 
by no means impairs the activity of their chemical 
elements on the human body. 

A French physician says that a shock of electricity 
given to a patient dying from the effects of chloroform 
immediately counteracts its influence and restores the 
patient to life. 



216 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 

Already employed to restore vigor and nimbleness 
to the gouty limbs of decrepit bons vivants, the recent 
discoveries of Dr. Bernier, a French physician, show 
electricity to be an efficient remedy for the evil effects 
of excessive drinking on the human nose. The doctor 
maintains that, by the application of an electric current 
to noses even of the most Bacchanalian hue, the flesh 
may be made " to come again as the flesh of a little 
child;" and he supports his assertion by a case per- 
formed on a female patient of his own — a woman of 
high rank. 

In connection with these instances of the value of 
electricity as a healer, we may fitly introduce the 
anecdote told of an elderly woman who entered a rail- 
road carriage at one of the Ohio stations, and dis- 
turbed the passengers a good deal with complaints 
about a " most dreadful rheumatiz " that she was 
troubled with. A gentleman present, who had himself 
been a severe sufferer with the same complaint, said 
to her : ■* Did you ever try electricity, madam ! I tried 
it, and in the course of a short time it cured me.'' 
"Electricity !" exclaimed the old lady, "yes, I've tried 
it to my satisfaction. I was struck by lightning about 
a year ago, but it didn't do me a single mossel o' good." 

ELECTRICITY AN " ANTI-FAT " REMEDY. 

We do not vouch for the accuracy of what we are 
about to relate, which records a remarkable operation 
performed by a Whitehall, New York State, physician. 
A gentleman who had been suffering from a super- 



ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 217 

abundance of adipose tissue consulted a medical 
practitioner, asking for relief from his burden. The 
latter took him to the telegraph office at that place. 
The fat man was requested to remove his coat and 
vest, after which the physician surrounded him with 
wires, attaching the ends to a powerful galvanic bat- 
tery. At a signal from the doctor, the manager let on 
the current. The patient writhed and twisted when 
he felt the current passing around him, but he stood 
it like a martyr. Presently he began to shrink ; he 
grew smaller and smaller and smaHer ; his clothing 
hung in bags about his fast diminishing form. The 
doctor felt much pleased at the result of his experi- 
ment, while the formerly fat man's joy was very great, 
although he seemed to be suffering the worst pain. 
All of a sudden there was heard a loud clicking at the 
instrument, as if Pandemonium's great hall had been 
let loose. The operator sprang quickly to answer the 
call. He ascertained it was from the New York office, 
and quickly asked: "What's up f An answer came 
back as if some demon was at the other end of the 
wire : " Cut off your wires quick — you are filling the 
New York office with soap grease 1" 



218 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 



OUTGEOWTHS OF THE TELEGEAPH. 

This is a subject remarkably fertile, because never 
in the history of the world have there been the same 
incentives to, and, we may add, the same success in 
many-sided invention as now. How multifarious, for 
example, are the applications of steam power! But 
those of the electric telegraph are, perhaps, even 
more numerous and certainly more interesting by 
reason of their diversity and marvellousness. We 
shall cite some of these, taking care to give due 
prominence to the most important, but not pretending, 
within the limits yet remaining to us, to include the 
mention of every realized or projected employment of 
electricity in the industrial arts. The subject of this 
chapter has, moreover, been more or less anticipated 
under appropriate headings in the foregoing pages. 

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 

One of the best, if not the best, descriptions of the 
electric light is that given by Mr. Edison in the 
October number (1880) of the North American Review. 

edison's description of it. 

Mr. Edison begins the article with a few words to 
those who have expressed their impatience at the 
delays in the perfecting of the electric light. The 
delays which have occurred to defer its general intro- 
duction are chargeable, he says, not to any defects 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 



219 



since discovered in the original theory of the system 
in its practical workings, but to the enormous mass of 
details which have to be mastered before the system 
can go into operation on a large scale, and on a com- 
mercial basis as a rival of the existing system of 
lighting by gas. Important improvements have been 
brought about by these delays, in the direction of 
economy and simplification at almost every point in 
the system, as well as in the details of manufacturing 
the apparatus. 

The lamp, the inventor tells us, has been completely 
transformed. To quote his own words : 

"The perfected lamp consists of an oval bulb of 
glass about five inches in height ; pointed at one end, 
and with a short stem three quarters of an inch in 
diameter at the other. Two wires of platinum enter 
the bulb through this stem, supporting the loop or 
U-shaped thread of carbon, which is about two inches 
in height. The stem is hermetically sealed after the 
introduction of the carbon loop. At its pointed end 
the bulb terminates in an open tube through which 
the air in the bulb is exhausted by means of a mercury 
pump till not over one-millionth part remains. The 
tube is then closed. The outer extremities of the two 
platinum wires are connected with the wires of an 
electric circuit, and at the base of a lamp is a screw 
by which the circuit is made or broken at pleasure. 
When the circuit is made the resistance offered to the 
passage of the electric current by the carbon causes 
the loop to acquire a high temperature and to become 
incandescent ; but as this takes place in a vacuum, the 
carbon is not consumed. The ' life ' of a carbon loop 
through which a current is passed continuously varies 
from seven hundred and fifty to nine hundred hours. 



220 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

With an intermitted current the loop has an equal 
duration of life, and as the average time an artificial 
light is used is five hours per day, it follows that one 
lamp will last about six months. Each lamp costs 
about fifty cents, and when one fails, another may be 
easily substituted for it." 

In conclusion, Mr. Edison promises the speedy 
introduction of his perfected lamp. Meanwhile it is 
satisfactory to reflect that in many places the public 
are already in the enjoyment of a light which is a 
source of comfort, safety and beauty. The world does 
not wait even for Mr. Edison. 

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT AT NIAGARA FALLS. 

Recent experiments at the Falls of Niagara, which 
at this writing take place once or twice a week, give 
emphasis to the possibilities of beauty afforded by the 
electric light. Esthetic people will be delighted to 
learn that in these experiments the fantastic displays 
of color surpass the richest pigments of the painter. 
From the terrace at Prospect Park on a dull night the 
Falls appear, under the rays of a red electric light, 
like an immense and swift-sliding avalanche of purple 
lava. In a moment, by changing the stained glass in 
front of the electric lamp, the Falls are made to gleam 
like silver, and when alternate colors are employed, 
the appearance of a splendid moving rainbow is 
presented. The foam in the abyss at the foot of the 
Falls when lit by the electric glow shines out like the 
phosphoresence of the ocean during a tempestuous 
night. One of the most rare and striking scenes it is 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 221 

possible to witness is the sudden illumination of 
Niagara by a flash of night lightning, and with the 
electric light it will be possible to produce the effect 
artificially. 

EXPERIMENTS IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

As everybody knows, considerable portions of prob- 
ably every great city in the leading countries of the 
world are now lighted by electricity, either as the 
result of private enterprise or municipal provision. 
In this connection it is announced that San Francisco 
claims to be ahead of European cities in the quality 
of the lamp used in lighting some of her streets. The 
light produced is said to be so brilliant that it cannot 
be looked upon with the naked eye without dazzling 
and injuring that delicate and most sensitive organ, 
it being even less painful to gaze upon the sun. One 
wonderful feature of this light is that any and every 
color is easily seen; the colored threads in various 
fabrics, the bright green of the grass, and the colors 
of flowers were brought out as distinctly as in day- 
light. By an ingenious device a light can be made 
self supplying for the longest night. It is self feeding, 
and can be burned as long as desired. Twelve jars 
and a coil are required for each light, save where two 
are in the immediate neighborhood of each other, as 
on either side of a hill, when one set of jars and one 
coil will answer for both. The plan and ingredients 
are kept a profound secret, but the inventors claim 
that they can light the city for one hundred thousand 



222 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

dollars a year, which is only one-third the present cost 
of gaslight. 

ELECTRIC LIGHTING ON AN EXTENSIVE SCALE. 

It is reported that a Boston electrical engineer is 
about to try the experiment of lighting the large 
manufacturing center of Holyoke, Massachusetts, with 
the electric light in a manner that will strike the 
present generation as novel, but which has been 
essayed before. It is proposed to erect a tower 
seventy five feet high overlooking the town. This is 
to be surmounted by an immense lantern of such 
illuminating capacity as to put all previous lamps in 
the category of trifles. At present only one tower 
will be erected, but if the principle should prove a 
success, seven or eight will ultimately be built, with a 
view to render the city as light as day, and completely 
to supersede gas and kerosene. The idea of the 
inventor of this daring scheme is to charge the upper 
strata of the atmosphere with luminous vibrations in 
the same manner as is done by the sun, and thus to 
produce the same effect that is obtained during the 
day from the reflected, refracted and diffused light of 
that orb. In this manner it is believed that electric 
light can be made to permeate spaces which are inac- 
cessible to direct rays by the same law by which 
daylight diffuses itself — that is by virtue of an expan- 
sive property which is constantly illustrated on the 
large scale of solar illumination, but has no place in 
our text-books on optics. The light given by the solar 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 223 

orb a few minutes after sunset, when only the upper 
strata of the atmosphere are directly affected by the 
>olar beam, furnishes, perhaps, the best example of 
bhe diffusion and expansion that the engineer pro- 
poses to imitate artificially. His plans provide for an 
illuminating power from each lantern equal to three 
hundred thousand candles, which is nearly twenty 
times that of any electric lamp yet manufactured, but 
is not at all impracticable, as it involves only an 
increase in electrical volume and pressure and a corre- 
sponding increase in the diameter of the carbons. 
The cost of the tower, lamp and generator for a single 
light is estimated at fifteen thousand dollars, irrespec- 
tive of the engine power required to run the latter. 
Magnificent and original as this conception seems, it 
has been attempted before, in the infancy of electrical 
engineering, by a "Western experimentalist, who con- 
cieved the idea of lighting the city of Cincinnati in a 
similar manner, by placing enormous lights upon the 
high ground overlooking the town. This idea was 
not successful, but possibly the failure was due to the 
crude electrical engineering of that day, and not to 
any inherent difficulty. 

VARIOUS USES FOR THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 

In the usual rush of business during the fall of the 
year, the electric light is found to be of great value in 
evening and night work, particularly in dry-goods 
establishments, where clear and intense light — one 
better, in short, than that produced from gas — is 
desirable in the matching and selection of colors. 



224 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH 

Some of the great ocean steamships are provided 
with the electric light, both for lighting the cabins and 
steerage and also as a means of preventing collisions. 
The light makes them visible, it is stated, at the 
distance of fourteen miles/ This provision reminds 
us that Professor Fleming Jenkin some years ago 
discovered and patented a new method of lighting the 
beacons and buoys on the sea coast by electricity, 
giving a bright, permanent and unmistakable light to 
guide the mariner, and preserve him from treacherous 
rocks and shoals. The light is produced by a rapid 
succession of sparks, due to successive charges and 
discharges of a condenser situated upon the beacon or 
buoy. This is charged directly with a voltaic battery, 
without the intervention of an induction coil. The 
communication is made by means of submarine wires 
running from the shore to the beacon or buoy, and 
can be operated thoroughly by persons on shore. 
The invention is considered in all respects practicable, 
and its adoption on the dangerous parts of our coasts 
would undoubtedly be the means of rendering fewer 
the dangers of the seas. 

About a year ago a number of experiments were 
made at Metz by a committee of officers in the German 
army, appointed to investigate the practicability of 
employing electric light during siege operations, and 
to suggest any modifications which it might seem 
expedient to introduce in the apparatus at present in 
use. Forts Frederic Charles and Alvensleben were 
illuminated by throwing the electric light upon them, 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 225 

when it was found that at a distance of from two to 
three kilometers not only buildings but also individual 
men could be plainly made out- One night the 
electric apparatus was arranged on the exercising 
ground outside the Chambiere gate, and the light 
directed upon a row of targets. Fire was then opened 
against these latter by a squad of riflemen, and the 
practice made was nearly as good as that recorded on 
ordinary occasions when firing by day — a result which 
was considered exceedingly satisfactory, as a thick 
mist prevailed at the time, and materially interfered 
with the action of the light. Altogether, the com- 
mittee concluded that the electric light may in future 
be employed with advantage not only in siege opera- 
tions but also during outpost duty and engagements 
at night. 

Here we must leave the electric light, and devote 
some space to 

THE TELEPHONE. 

This instrument is constructed on the principle of 
the human ear. It consists of an elastic diaphragm, 
to receive vibrations of air from the human voice or 
from other sources, so connected with the wires of a 
battery (or even with wires without a battery) as to 
communicate the same vibrations in every respect to 
another membrane or diaphragm situated at a dis- 
tance. The two diaphragms of a telephone in distant 
places correspond, in every practical sense, to the 
two membranes of the human ear, and the connecting 



226 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

wire to the chain of bones between the two membranes. 
Probably no invention has come more rapidly into 
popular favor. "It is employed as a means of com- 
munication between counting room and factory, 
merchant's residence and the office, publishing house 
and printing office, and, in short, wherever oral com- 
munication is desired between persons separated by 
any distance beyond the ordinary reach of the human 
voice." 

THE GERMAN NAME FOR THE TELEPHONE. 

In Germany they call the telephone " Farnsprecher," 
signifying far speaker. The adoption of so short a 
name, says the Scientific American, is a matter of con- 
gratulation, because the Germans might easily have 
found a way of smothering the telephone under some 
frightfully polysyllabic title. To show how closely 
the fortunate instrument has escaped this fate, a 
correspondent in Heidelberg writes that no less than 
fifty-four names were proposed in German, all of 
varying degrees of atrocity. Some (we will not inflict 
the reader with the original titles) signified " mile 
tongue," " kilometer tongue," "speaking post," "word 
lightning," " world trumpet," and finally one inventor, 
collecting all his energies for a grand effort, trium- 
phantly produced " doppelstahlblechzungensprecher." 
The jaw can be replaced by pressing on the lower 
molars with the fingers, and guiding the muscles with 
the thumbs. 

THE INVENTOR OF THE TELEPHONE. 

Various accounts, as is usual, have been given of the 
invention of the telephone. An article in a ^ecent 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 227 

number of the Pekin Gazette, written by one Chin Hoo, 
says that Kung Foo Whing, a distinguished phi- 
losopher who flourished about the year 976, invented 
the telephone — which is known in China as "Thumth- 
sein" — in the year 968. It is said that two hundred 
and ten years ago a book was published in England, 
in which the author affirmed that " it was not impos- 
sible to hear a whisper at a furlong's distance, it having 
been already done," and that he assured the reader that 
he had, " by the help of a distended wire, propagated 
sound to a very considerable distance." The Buffalo 
Sentinel, dated September 10, 1853, contained the 
following item: "An English paper, the Plymouth 
Journal, announces the discovery of a means of trans- 
mitting sounds to a great distance through the 
medium of water. The instrument by which this is 
done is called by its inventor a ' telephon ' or sound- 
carrier." These various announcements manifestly 
do not discredit the statement made by Mr. W. P. 
Barrett, that the inventor of the electric telephone was 
Mr. John Cammack. This gentleman says that as 
early as 1860 Mr. Cammack, while a student in the 
Royal School of Medicine, Manchester, made and 
3xhibited a telephone containing not only the inter- 
mittent current introducd by Philip Reiss, of Hamburg, 
in 1861, but the principle of continuous current of 
varying strength used still more recently by Mr. 
Edison and Professor Graham Bell. There is no 
evidence, however, that Mr. Cammack had carried out 
his idea practically like Bell. But what becomes of 
the claim for Mr. Cammack if it be true that old 



228 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

journals have been found containing an account of a 
new musical instrument invented by M. Petrina, of 
Prague, who is statecl to have constructed " an 
instrument with keys which by a galvanic current 
sets a small iron plate into vibration as soon as the 
hand leaves the key 1 Each key produces a different 
tone, and the tuning and use are similar to that of a 
pianoforte. A second instrument put at a considerable 
distance is connected with the other in such a way 
that the music played on the one resounds from the 
other." This appears to have been a musical tele- 
phone put in practical form long before any now 
known. 

A TELEPHONE SERVICE METER. 

At the telephone convention recently held at 
Niagara Falls, a telephone service meter was exhibited, 
the invention of Mr. H. L. Bailey, of New York, 
whereby the time that each subscriber uses the tele- 
phone, as well as the number of times it is in use, can 
be registered by clockwork. If this device realizes 
the expectations of its inventor, it is probable that 
instead of the one at present in use, a toll system will 
be generally adopted, each subscriber paying a 
nominal amount as rent for the telephone, and so 
much for every time he uses the instrument, which 
would doubtless prove more satisfactory both to the 
company and to the public. 

SERMONS BY TELEPHONE. 

When the telephone was first introduced it was 
laughingly said that people need not go to church? 



OtJTGKOWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 229 

but could sit in their own houses and have the sermon 
and the services wafted to them telephonieally. This 
was done for the first time, we believe, at Lowell, 
Massachusetts. Twelve persons visited the central 
telephone office one Sunday morning, on the invitation 
of Manager Glidden. Tne office was counected by 
telephone with the Freewill Baptist Church, an 
instrument being arranged out of sight behind the 
pulpit. The organ voluntary rang out clear and 
sweet upon the ears of the telephone listeners, and the 
reading and praying — even when spoken in a whisper 
— were distinguished word for word. Then came the 
voice of the minister — "We will sing the 428th hymn, 
omitting the third verse," and after a brief interlude 
by the organist, the voices of the congregation were 
heard in pleasing melody. After reading a number of 
notices the text was announced as a portion of Mat- 
thew 16: 3 : "But can ye not discern the signs of the 
times?" It was a discourse written evidently for the 
occasion, and went to establish the truth of the 
assertion that "science ever has been and must be the 
safeguard of religion." What science had already 
accomplished for the world and what religion owed to 
it ~7ere dwelt upon with much force. Before con- 
cluding, the minister spoke of some of the wonderful 
inventions of the day, and made special reference to 
the phonograph and telephone. During the discourse 
there was the least possible difficulty in distinguishing 
the remarks of the preacher when his earnestness in 
his subject impelled him to emphatic sentences. The 



230 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

moderate tones were all plainly heard, as were also the 
concluding organ selection as the congregation passed 
out, and the muffled monotonous tones of the retiring 
worshippers. 

The second experiment of transmitting a sermon by 
our most noted preacher, created a greater stir. 
Listeners were not slow to appreciate the novel 
advantage of listening to a sermon preached by 
Henry "Ward Beecher, without the necessity of crowd- 
ing into his church. 

Owing, says a reporter on the New York Press, to 
the necessity for concealing the transmitters from 
the congregation, as well as to the drawback of hav- 
ing but one wire, the sound was not at all times 
distinct, but was interrupted by inquiries from vari- 
ous points on the circuit. Whenever the preacher 
thumped his Bible there was a whiz and whirr that 
was anything but solemn. The music of the choir 
of the congregation and the soloist were heard 
plainly all over the circuit. The sermons were 
rather disconnected, from the fact that the listeners 
at the instruments were constantly changing, and 
occasionally the wires would get crossed or the plugs 
pulled out, so that the discourse would get mixed 
with messages. The morning sermon ran something 
like this: 

"WTiat can be more pitiful (Hallo! hallo!) than 
the spectacle recently presented at West Point? 
(Hallo! Chin — referring to Mr. Chinnock, the elec- 
trician — don't cut me off.) How is the young man 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 231 

treated? (There, you've cut me off again.) He was 
ostracised by his comrades. (Hallo! Beach! Hallo!) 
Insults were showered upon him. (Put that plug in 
a little tighter.) He works his way onward. But 
the detestable prejudice of those who should have 
been his comrades and associates (Stop calling and 
listen, will you?) single him out (Brown, be quiet) 
for persecution, and the brutal (whrr-r-r-r-r ! — caused 
by the preacher pounding the table), cowardly out- 
rage (here a sound like the clashing of cymbals), with 
accounts of which the newspapers have been teeming 
for a week, is committed upon him." 

As soon as all the listeners got quiet, however, the 
sermon was heard with distinctness, and when the 
number of listeners on the circuit was decreased, the 
sound became much more distinct than when the 
circuit was open for all. Mr. Chinnock said that with 
a separate transmitter and a separate wire there 
would be no trouble whatever in hearing the whole 
of any service without interruption. The peculiar 
tone and accent of the preacher were easily recog- 
nizable, and the sermon might have been heard by 
any one of the thirty-five hundred people in com- 
munication with the telephone exchange. Mr. Chin- 
nock says that it would be possible for a preacher 
to stay at home and preach his sermon to a congre- 
gation of ten thousand at their homes. 

USES OF THE TELEPHONE. 

The telephone promises to be of extensive use in 



232 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

very diverse ways. By means of it, music played in 
France has been distinctly heard in England. 

The telephone is being rapidly introduced into the 
various military establishments, not only in the capi- 
tal and its neighborhood, but also everywhere in 
Germany. 

The young Spanish king, now a happy father, being 
separated from his bride by the rigid court etiquette 
and public affairs for several days each week, had his 
private apartments connected with her palace by a 
telephone, through which the royal lovers communi- 
cated without interference or annoyance. 

The telephone has lately been successfully used in 
France to communicate between a vessel being towed 
and one towing. The wire was carried along one of 
the hawsers, and the circuit completed through the 
copper on the bottoms of the ships and the water. 
Conversation was carried on very distinctly. 

Its aid has been secured in Jersey City in connec- 
tion with the courts. A telegraph wire has been con- 
structed from the Hudson County Court House to 
the telegraph office in Montgomery Street, and a 
telephone attached to each end, whereby lawyers can 
communicate with each other rapidly or between their 
offices and the court house. 

HUMORS OF THE TELEPHONE. 

A correspondent thinks that the telephone will 
soon be utilized on freight trains, so that the con- 
ductor can sit by the stove in the caboose and swear 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 233 

at the brakeinan, instead of having to go out on the 
top of the cars in the cold to do it. 

Mr. Basingbal (city merchant) — "Most convenient! 
I can converse w*th Mrs. B. just as if I was in my 
own drawing-room. I'll tell her you are here." 
(Speaks through the telephone.) " Dawdles is here 
— just come from Paris — looking so well — desires to 
be," etc., etc. " Now you take it, and you'll hear her 
voice distinctly." Dawdles — " Weally ! " (Dawdles 
takes it.) The voice — " For goodness' sake, dear, 
don't bring that insufferable noodle home to dinner ! " 

The following advertisement appeared in the New 
York Herald " Personal" column at the time that the 
telephone was first introduced in New York: 

"A chance to be married by the Bell speaking telephone 
will be given to a limited number of couples during the latter 
part of this month. No charges will be made; satisfactory 
references required. Applicants should address box 229, Herald 
office. » 

The ceremony did not, however, for some reason 
or other, take place, although a marriage by tele 
phone would seem to be fully as appropriate and 
practicable, so to speak, as one by telegraph. 

Magnet writes : " I had often read of the singing- 
telephone; but I shall never forget the first time I 
heard one. I was night operator at a small railroad 
station. Along about four o'clock in the morning, 
while I was lying on a table, I heard that which 
seemed to me as some one humming the tune of 



234 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

" Hold the Fort." As no one was around the depot 
at that unusual hour of the morning, I came to the 
conclusion that it was not coming from human lips. 
So I got up and went outside of the office and list- 
ened. As I could hear nothing, I went back in the 
office, and could still hear the singing, though it soon 
ceased. After waiting a few moments it commenced 
again. This time it was " Sweet Bye and Bye." 
After searching inside and out of the office, I could 
not tell where the sound came from, and, as I am not 
the bravest man in the world, I will confess that I 
began to think of sprites singing in the air. At that 
instant the armature of the relay on a local wire 
rattled tremendously, and made a very strange, loud 
noise. I rushed over to it, and, to my horror, the 
instrument was singing! Kind reader, imagine my 
feeling at a lonesome station, at four o'clock in the 
morning, and, to my knowledge, there had been four 
men killed within a stone's throw of the office, and 
the instrument singing hymns! It was more than I 
could stand. I rushed out of the office, intending to 
make a home run, when it flashed across my mind that 
it was the singing telephone." 

In Pine Bluff there is a prominent man. There are 
many prominent men in Pine Bluff, but this one is so 
very prominent in a certain direction that his name is 
known along the crowded street and out in the fur- 
rowed globe. It is almost unnecessary to call him 
Colonel C. A man of striking intelligence and profound 
reading, he has taken up a financial hobby. He knows 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 235 

so well that the United States government should 
adopt his theory that he would be willing to bet his 
eternal existence on it He'll stop a man on the 
street and hammer him with argument, belabor him 
with deep-set expressions, and kick him with "im- 
portant information" for hours. One day the Colonel 
went into M. L. Jones' office, and had just begun to 
draw himself up for a three-hours' speech, when Mr. 
Jones remarked: 

" By the way, colonel, have you ever seen the tele- 
phone work?" 

" No ; and I don't believe you can hear any better 
through that thing than you can through a cow's 
horn." 

" I've got one here connected with Colonel Grace's 
office, and if you'll just put your ear here I'll show 
you. I'll do the talking — you listen." 

The parties took position, Colonel C. incredulously, 
and Mr. Jones called: 

"Colonel Grace, are you there?" 

" Yes ; is that you, Jones ? " 

"Yes; how do you feel? " 

" I'm about worn out. That — man C. has been 
around here this morning boring me to death with 
his financial business. I guess I'll get rested though 
after a while." 

Colonel C. took his ear away and remarked: 

"If he'd only listened to me he would have been 
smarter in ten minutes more than he ever was before 
in his life." 



336 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

Mr. Armstrong, superintendent of the Suburban Tele- 
graph Company of Cincinnati, was on a visit to Chicago 
at the time that the musical telephone first began to 
attract attention. On his return he reported that he 
had made arrangements to test the telephone between 
the two cities. The music of a brass band at Chicago 
was to be transmitted over the wires and distinctly 
heard in Cincinnati. Out of courtesy to the newspaper 
fraternity, it was announced that none but members 
of that profession would be admitted to the first trial. 
When the time came thirty newspaper men were present, 
pencils and all. It took Mr. Armstrong some time to 
adjust things properly, but finally sweet sounds were 
heard. Musical critics, reporters and editors placed 
their ears close and could not conceal their joy. "I 
hear the telephone whir, " said one ; another threw his 
hat in the air with delight, while theremainder fell upon 
each other's necks to weep. Presently one of the party 
said he could distinguish the French horn from the 
bass drum, another thought the man playing the trom- 
bone was blowing too hard to make artistic music, an- 
other could count just sixteen pieces in the band while 
still another counted seventeen. Everybody listened 
and drank in the delicious strains. Finally the music 
abruptly stopped. As they all wanted to examine the 
telephone to its bitter end, Mr. Armstrong lifted the 
top of the relay box and disclosed a little Swiss music 
box, which on being wound up struck up : " A Life on 
the Ocean Wave, A Home on the KollingDeep." The 
faces of the astute newspaper men very visibly length- 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 237 

ened as they contemplated what a complete sell had 
been perpetrated upon them. It is presumed that Mr. 
Armstrong properly appreciated the fun. He had just 
graduated in the same school at the hands of Mr. 
Summers at Chicago a few days before. Some of the 
reporters felt quite blue over the sell, as a number of 
them had been studying scientific works on the trans- 
mission of sound for weeks, and had several columns 
of introduction in advance, which was already in type. 

THE PHOTOPHONE. 

One of the latest marvels in applied science is the 
discovery by Professor A. Graham Bell and Sumner 
Taintor of Watertown that " sounds can be produced by 
the action of a variable light from substances of all kinds, 
when in the form of thin diaphragms." In other words, 
a ray of light is substituted for the connecting wire, 
and sounds at one station are reproduced at another. 
As is well known the action of the telephone is due to 
variations in an electric current, caused by a diaphragm 
set in vibration by the voice, the current thus modified 
reproducing its variations on a sensitive diaphragm at 
the other end of the circuit. In the "photophone," 
as the new invention is called, the changes in the elec- 
tric current are made during its passage through selen- 
ium, a substance heretofore known only as a chemical 
curiosity, but with the strange property of conducting 
electricity more easily when exposed to light than when 
in the dark. A steady light allows a current to pass 
through an even resistance ; a varied light varies the 



238 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

resistance, so that the current is stronger or weaker 
after passing through the selenium, and its variation are 
easily turned, in a telephone, into vibrations of sound. 
Professor Bell and Mr. Taintor have already spoken 
between points about 600 feet apart, and they believe 
that the result can be obtained as far as a beam of 
light can be flashed. The simplest apparatus of many 
devised consists of a plane mirror of flexible material, 
as silver microscope glass or mica, which will quiver 
with vibrations of sound. On this is gathered through 
a lens a beam of light from any source, success having 
been found with a kerosene or candle flame. The par- 
allee beam reflected from the plane mirror is thrown 
to a distant concave mirror and focussed on a 
piece of selenium, electrically connected with a tele- 
phone. The voice throws the plane mirror into vibra- 
tions which modify in intensity the ray of light, which 
rapidly changes the resistance of the distant selenium, 
this varying the electric current in the telephone as 
the voice now does directly. Another means of affec- 
ting the beam of light is by a disk, pref orated with 
slits, which is rapidly turned, producing in the selenium 
a continuous musical tone, whose pitch varies with the 
rapidity of the disk's rotation, a silent motion thus 
producing a sound. A strange thing is that some sub- 
stances placed in the beam of light do not cut off the 
sound. A sheet of hard rubber, for instance, made the 
beam invisible, but the musical note was still heard. 
Other experiments suggest the possibility of doing 
entirely without the electric current in the telephone 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 239 

at the receiving station. Many other substances 
were substituted for selenium, the affected ray of 
light focussed upon them, and the musical note was 
heard without the aid of a telephone or battery. Only 
carbon and thin glass failed to give a sound. 

HATCHING BY ELECTRICITY. 

Silk-worms hatched by electricity are now being 
reared in Italy. The same method is also applied to 
hens' eggs, and to hastening the germination of seeds. 

THEATRICAL THUNDER. 

An enterprising citizen of Chicago has invented a 
process by which real genuine thunder and lightning 
can be produced by means of an electric battery. 
The new theory in theatrical thunder is soon to be 
tried, and the effect produced is said to be startling. 

TOOTHACHE CURED BY ELECTRICITY. 

Dr. Bouchard, of Paris, says that the toothache 
may be almost instantly arrested by a constant bat- 
tery current from ten cells. The positive pole is 
placed against the jaw, on a level with the painful 
tooth, and the negative pole to the antero-lateral 
region, on the same side of the neck. 

A SUGGESTION. 

There are contrivances for turning gas on and off 
by electricity, lighting any number of burners at the 
same instant of time. By connecting this with the 



240 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

burglar-alarm telegraph, the opening of a door or 
window would set the bells ringing and light all the 
burners in the house at the same instant. 

ELECTRICITY AS A WATER-SHED. 

A Frenchman has discovered that electricity applied 
to a certain small apparatus repels rain. He places the 
electrical apparatus in his cane, which he holds above 
his head, when the rain pours off in all directions. 
The people of the town in which he lives gaze upon 
him, it is said, with a sort of awe, as he walks in the 
midst of rain without being wet. 

TAMING HORSES BY ELECTRICITY 

An English journal says: "Mr. George Lay cock, 
farmer, of Whittington, near Sheffield, was convicted 
in the penalty of forty shillings and costs, by the 
Sheffield stipendary magistrate, for cruelty to a mare, 
which he was taming by electricity at a public sport- 
ing ground. Horse-taming by electricity in Yorkshire 
has, it is said, been freely practiced of late, and the 
prosecution therefore excited considerable interest/' 

ELECTRICITY AND RELIGION. 

At the Moody and Sankey meetings in New York, 
the several halls of the Hippodrome were connected 
by telegraph, and when the director, sitting on the 
platform immediately behind Mr. Moody, wished the 
gas turned on, the doors or ventilators opened or 
closed, or the like, he did it by that agency. Small 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 241 

electric bells were also arranged around the building, 
on which orders to the door-keepers, ushers, etc., 
were given. Everything worked like clock-work. 

ELECTRICAL AIR AS A TRANSMITTER. 

It has long been known that telegraphic messages 
could be transmitted without the use of wires, and 
many years since signals were sent across the Bristol 
Channel by the use of the water as the conducting 
medium; but in that case the water through which 
the signals passed was inclosed in a tube, so that it 
was, in truth, only the substitution of a wire of water, 
if the term can be used, for the metallic wire usually 
employed. Professor Loomis now proposes to go 
further; he claims to have discovered a mode of 
transmitting messages by electrical air currents, and 
is seeking an opportunity for making experiments on 
the summit of Mont Blanc. 

MAPS BY TELEGRAPH. 

A member of the Parisian Academy of Science has 
devised a method whereby exact maps and diagrams 
may be transmitted by telegraph. A numerally- 
graduated semi-circular plate of glass is laid by the 
telegrapher over the map to be transmitted, and a 
pencil of mica, attached to a pivoted strip of metal, 
also divided into numbers, allowed to move over the 
plate. Looking through a fixed eye-piece, the opera- 
tor traces out his map on the glass with the adjustable 
mica pencil, and, noticing the numbers succes- 



242 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

sively touched on the plate and on the moving metal 
arm, telegraphs them to his correspondent, who, by 
means of an exactly similar apparatus, is thereby 
enabled to trace out an exactly similar map. 

MAGNETIC MAGIC WRITING. 

In Bristol, Professor Thompson recently made an 
interesting experiment, which can be used as a secret 
or magic writer, and reminds us of the magic inks 
which appear by heat and disappear again by cooling. 
He took a very thin sheet of hardened steel, and 
made invisible letters on it by means of the point of 
an iron bar strongly magnetized by means of a sur- 
rounding coil and battery; he found that all the 
places touched had become permanently magnetic to 
such a degree that when fine iron-filings were placed 
upon it, and then the plate turned over to make them 
fall off again, the iron-filings remained on the spot 
touched with the magnet, and thus made the writing 
visible. The writing may be rubbed out by brushing 
the filings away, but reappears any time afterward 
when the filings are again applied. 

ELECTRIC DRIVING POWER. 

The New York correspondent of the Boston Journal 
describes a new invention for displacing steam by 
electricity, and says that lathes, planing machines, 
and other mechanical arrangements are driven by this 
power. To run an engine of twenty-horse power by 
this invention would require only a space of three 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. S54d 

feet long two feet wide and 'two feet high. The cost 
per day would be thirty-five cents. On a steamship 
no coal would be required, and the space now used 
for coal and machinery could be used for cargo. The 
stubborn resistance of electricity to mechanical use 
heretofore has, it is believed, been overcome. A con- 
tinuous battery has been secured, and other difficul- 
ties removed, principally through the coil of the 
magnet. If the invention works as well on a large 
scale as it does on the machinery to which it is now 
applied, steamships will soon ply the ocean under 
the new propelling power. The whole thing, mighty 
enough to cany a Cunarder to Liverpool, can, he 
adds, be secured in a small trunk. 

ELECTRICITY IN MANAGING REFRACTORY HORSES. 

The French papers tell of a wonderful invention 
which will enable the feeblest among us to " witch 
the world with noble coachmanship." The horse of 
the future is not to be driven by ordinary reins, but 
by electricity combined with them. The coachman is 
to have under his seat an electro-magnetic apparatus, 
which he works by means of a little handle. One 
wire is carried through the rein to the bit, and 
another to the crupper, so that a current once set up 
goes the entire length of the animal along the spine. 
A sudden shock will, we are gravely assured, stop the 
most violent runaway or the most obstinate jibber. 
The creature, however strong and however vicious, is 
" at once transformed into a sort of inoffensive horse 



244 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

of wood, with the feet firmly nailed to the ground." 
Curiously enough, the very opposite result may be 
produced by a succession of small shocks. Under 
the influence of these the veriest screw can be sud- 
denly endowed with a vigor and fire indescribable, 
and even the Eosinante of Don Quixote would gal- 
lop like a racer. What is the effect upon the condi- 
tion of the horse is not stated, but the Steele finds 
itself able to congratulate M. Fancher upon " an 
invention equally original and salutary," and one 
which places in the hands even of an infant a power 
over the horse which is as sovereign as it is invisibla 

ENGRAVING BY ELECTRICITY. 

A novel apparatus for engraving by electricity was 
exhibited in the machinery department of the French 
exhibition. A metal plate, with some object drawn 
upon it with a special ink, is slowly rotated with its 
face vertical; and several other similar plates, but of 
decreasing smallness and with correspondingly dimin- 
ished speed, are also slowly rotated by appropriate 
mechanism. On these plates it is intended the object 
delineated on the first plate shall be engraved on 
different scales of magnitude; and this is accom- 
plished by applying a diamond cutting-point to the 
face of each plate, which is pressed against it through 
the agency of an electrical current whenever a blunt 
point presented to the first plate encounters the ink, 
but is withdrawn at other times. The point presented 
to the first plate is a " feeler," which determines by 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 245 

electrical agency whether there is ink beneath it or 
not. If there is, the diamond points opposite to 
all the other plates are pressed in, and if there is not, 
they are withdrawn and prevented from cutting. 
The " feeler " and the diamond burins must all follow 
a spiral track. 

DIAGRAMS OF TARGETS OVER THE WIRE. 

This feat, which at first sight seems an almost 
incredible one, looks more simple when it is sug- 
gested that there be prepared in the editorial sanc- 
tum, beforehand, two similar sheets, each the size of 
the targets to be used and ruled very closely in two 
directions, so that the lines intersect. Then number 
every line on the margin. The reporter uses one 
sheet, and by saturating it with oil it will, if thin, 
become sufficiently transparent to enable him to trace 
with lead pencil the marks on the targets. What 
easier then than to send by telegraph the intersec 
tions, which may be made frequent enough to locate 
so closely as to answer all practical purposes ? 

ELECTRIC COMBS AND BRUSHES. 

In an old number of the Scientific American we find 
the following, which is interesting inasmuch as the 
suggestion it makes has been acted upon in the pro- 
duction of a hair-brush now freely advertised. 

" The manufacture and sale of hair restoratives has 
always been a favorite with a certain class of public 
benefactors, whose disinterested labors have resulted 



246 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

in the foundation of many a fortune. We lately came 
across the specifications of an old English intent 
which will, perhaps, be interesting at a time like the 
present, when alcohol and bear's grease command such 
fabulous prices. 

" This patent was for ' an apparatus for improving 
and restoring the human hair,' introducing a new 
feature in this line. By the plan of this inventor 
combs and brushes are to be constructed of different 
metals, so that when in use electric currents are given 
off; ' thereby the skin is caused to be stimulated, and 
a healthy action ensues, restoring the hair to its ori- 
ginal color, and generally improving its appearance.' 
The same effect may be produced by having the 
articles formed partly of metal having batteries con- 
nected therewith when in use. As the patent claim 
long since expired, the above method is open to any 
enterprising individual wishing to experiment." 

NEW USES FOR THE SUNS RAYS. 

The thermo-electric battery is exciting the imagina- 
tions of men of science, causing them to call up 
wonderful visions of a future when much of the work 
of the world shall be done by sunshine. Like wind- 
mills, thermo-electric batteries might be erected all 
over the country, finally converting into mechanical 
force, and thus into money, gleams of sunshine, 
which would be to them as wind to the sails of a 
mill. What stores of fabulous wealth are, as far as 
our earth is concerned, constantly wasted by the non 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 247 

retention of the solar rays poured out upon the 
Desert of Sahara! Nature here refuses to use her 
wonderful radiation net, for we cannot cover the 
desert sands with trees, and man is left alone to try 
his skill in retaining solar energy. Hitherto helpless, 
we need not be so much longer, and the force of a 
Sahara sun may be carried through wires to Cairo? 
and thence irrigate the desert; or possibly, if need 
be, it could pulsate under our streets and be made to 
burn in Greenland. 

THE OCEAN A SOURCE OF ELECTRICITY. 

An important experiment was made by M. Duche- 
min, of Paris, during a holiday at the seaside. He 
made a small cork buoy, and fixed to it a disc of char- 
coal containing a small plate of zinc. He then threw 
the buoy into the sea, and connected it with copper 
wires to an electric alarum on the shore. The alarum 
instantly began to ring, and went on ringing, and it 
is added that sparks may be drawn between the two 
ends of the wires. Thus the ocean seems to be a 
powerful and inexhaustible source of electricity, and 
the small experiment of M. Duchemin may lead to 
most important results. 

ELECTRICITY AS AN EXECUTIONER. 

It has been proposed to substitute a method less 
clumsy than those now obtaining for the execution of 
criminals, and the adoption of electricity for this 
purpose has enthusiastic advocates in Germany, as 



248 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

well as in France, as witness the following imposing 
description of a method proposed by a German 
writer: " In a dark room, draped with black, and 
which is lighted only by a single torch — the chamber 
of execution — there shall stand an iron image of Jus- 
tice with her scales and sword. Stern Justice is 
popularly supposed to have no bowels, but the Ger- 
man goddess will carry a powerful battery in her 
inside; and this battery will be connected with an 
arm-chair — the seat of death. In front of the chair 
will stand the judge's tribunal, and only the judge, 
jury, and other officers will be present with the cri- 
minal during -the ceremony of the execution. This 
will consist in the judge reading the story of the 
crime committed by the prisoner, who will be rigidly 
manacled to the aforesaid arm-chair, and when this is 
done, the judge will break his rod of office, and toss 
it into one of the scale-pans of justice, at the same 
time extinguishing the solitary torch. The descent of 
the pan will complete the electric circuit, and shock 
the wretch into the next world." 

It is also suggested to utilize the electric fluid in 
killing animals. A battery and coil would be far 
more effective and far less cruel tools than the pole- 
axe or the sticking-knife We suppose the angler 
would consider his occupation gone if he had to 
fish with an electric line and a torpor-producing bait ; 
yet the whaler has a notion that he can catch his 
monsters upon an analogous plan. A London firm 
have obtained a patent for a method, startling to 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 249 

" old salts " in its originality, for catching whales by 
means of electricity. By their plan every whaleboat 
is provided with a galvanic battery. Wires from 
opposite poles run down to the points of each set of 
harpoons. When the whale is near, two harpoons are 
thrown as nearly simultaneously as possible, which when 
embedded in the flesh of the monster, complete the 
circuit. The charge is expected to be sufficiently 
powerful to paralyze the animal, so that the small boat 
may advance and dispatch him at leisure. 

ELECTRIC CLOCKS. 

A citizen of Burlington, Vermont, has invented a 
clock that runs by electricity, and never requires 
winding. It has only three wheels, no weights or 
springs, and it is claimed that it has little friction, is 
not affected by heat, cold, dampness or jarring. A 
single clock and battery can be connected with any 
number of dials and indicators in the same building, 
or even along the whole line of a railway. 

A magnetic clock, invented by Daniel Drawbaugh, 
of Milltown, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, is 
sufficiently remarkable to be wo:! description. The 
magnetism of the earth, an inexhaustible source of 
power, is made to oscillate the pendulum, and the 
simplicity of all the works gives an assurance of the 
least possible friction. At a certain point the move- 
ments of the pendulum itself shut off magnetic con- 
nection with the earth, and at another point restore 
the connection, thus securing conditions necessary to 



250 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

produce its oscillations. The works are so ingenious 
and simple that it is no wild assertion to make that, 
were it not for the unavoidable wearing out caused by 
even the small amount of friction, the clock would 
run as long as the solid earth endures. This clock 
was hung against the board partition, with all its 
works exposed, subject to the jarrings of machinery 
and obstructions from dust settling on it, for years, 
yet it ran continuously and uniformly, with only slight 
reported variations, as tested by transit observations 
at noon. 

STEAM AND ELECTRICITY 

Mr. W. H. Bailey, an English inventor, has pro 
posed a new system of sea telegraphy, by means of 
which vessels can communicate in foggy weather, or 
when a considerable distance apart. It consists 
simply in the adaptation of the Morse code of signals 
to a steam whistle. The message is read by ear, the 
whistle, worked by a hand lever, giving forth long 
and short sounds corresponding to the long and short 
lines of the Morse system. According to experiments 
made by the inventor, it is believed that a twelve inch 
whistle can be heard at a distance of six miles, and 
that two vessels passing within hearing could converse 
at the rate of twelve hundred words an hour. The 
advantages of such a system in foggy weather are 
evident. 

It would startle many people, who happened to see 
a locomotive blowing off steam at a railway station, if 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 251 

they were told that there is electricity enough gener- 
ated in the discharge of steam to blow the whole 
train to atoms, if, instead of being dissipated, it were 
collected. The fact was first accidentally noticed by 
an English engineer, who perceived sparks, which 
proved to be electrical, among the escaping steam. 
The discovery was confirmed by the construction of a 
hydro-electrical machine in the shape of a boiler set 
on glass legs. The steam, as it rushes out of the 
escape valve, is received on a series of metallic points 
by which it is gathered and accumulated in the con- 
ductor, as in an ordinary electrical machine, in which 
the electricity is generated by the friction of a glass- 
plate or cylinder. Will engineers ever come to appre- 
ciate the fact that every locomotive, or tug, or steamer 
carries the means of lighting itself far better and more 
cheaply than by any lamp ? 

THE EDISON ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE. 

The Edison electric locomotive is about the size of 
an ordinary hand-car which railroad laborers propel 
along the track, and consists simply of one of Edi- 
son's generators on wheels. When this apparatus is 
intended to generate electricity, the armature is 
turned with great rapidity by two powerful mag- 
nets, and takes from them a quantity of magnetism 
or electricity, which is used for any purpose for which 
it may be needed. A steam engine of at least five- 
horse power is needed to turn the armature of one of 
these generators. In the locomotive the generator 



252 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

receives instead of generating electricity, and the 
armature turns with great rapidity as the current 
passes through it. It is like winding up silk on one 
bobbin and unwinding it on another. In running 
the locomotive, therefore, two generators are used, 
one stationary in the engine-house, worked by steam 
and generating the current, and the other on the 
locomotive receiving motion from the current. The 
armature on the locomotive is geared to the driving- 
wheels, so that it makes four revolutions to one of 
the driving-wheels. It is as if the stationary engine 
wound up a spring in one generator to be let loose 
and impart motion to another. Electric motors are 
plenty as blackberries, and toy locomotives going by 
electricity have been made to run around a table. 
Dr. Siemen, of Berlin, and Edison are the first to con- 
struct locomotives of any size. The problem has 
always been to get the electricity to the engine with- 
out having to carry along the whole generating appa- 
ratus on the train. The new plan is to make the 
track carry the current. It makes no difference 
whether the locomotive is standing still or going at 
the rate of fifty miles an hour, so far as receiving the 
current through the rails is concerned. The current 
reaches the locomotive wherever it may be found on 
the track, and entering by the wheels reaches the arma- 
ture and sets it revolving. 

ELECTRICITY AIDING WEARY CASH GIRLS. 

An enterprising dry goods firm in this city have 
recently tried the experiment of running their cash 



OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEG31PH. 253 

system by electricity, and with excellent results. Pre- 
vious to the introduction of electricity, on Saturdays, 
particularly in the afternoon, the din and confusion, 
and the incessant call of "cash!" "cash!" "cash!" 
by the saleswomen and salesmen were absolutely deaf- 
ening. So the two Ehrich brothers put their heads 
together to invent something that would call the cash 
girls without so much noise. "I suggested bells," 
says Mr. Ehrich, in telling the story, but Louis said : 
"'No, that would be as bad as the cash calls.' One 
day he came to me and said, excitedly : ' William, I've 
found it. Electricity is the thing.' I declare I thought 
Louis had gone crazy. ' Found what V said I. ' What 
is electricity the thing for? ' 'Our cash girls,' he re- 
plied. 'In the name of conscience, Louis,' said I, 
'what are you going to put electricity on our cash 
girls for ? I don't see that anything is the matter 
with them.' Then Louis began to laugh. He explained 
that he meant to apply electricity to call them, instead 
of the cash call used in all the stores in the city from 
A. T. Stewart's to ours. Come and see his invention." 
And he led the way to the register in the center of 
the store under the main staircase, where there are 
thirty or more little circular silver-plated drops, label 
led "hosiery," "buttons," "millinery," and so on, with 
numbers also to correspond with the sections. Every 
now and then, as if by magic, down dropped one of 
the little silver plates. A young man standing by the 
side of the register instantly spoke, "hosiery," or 
"trimmings," 1, 2 or 3, as the case might be, and as 



254 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

soon as he thus announced the department and num- 
ber, off started the head girl in the line of cash girls 
seated on the other side of the register. In the mean 
time others came up as fast as the first departed and 
took their seats in the line. There was no confusion, 
no hurry, not a call throughout the large and busy 
establishment although dollars and parcels by the hund- 
red were passing over the counters. Near each of 
the counters are little cord-like straps running back 
of the saleswomen, that they pull whenever a purchase 
is made and a sale completed, and which are connected 
with electrical wires running under the floors and 
joined to the drops at the register. 

CONCLUSION. 

We must now bid our reader farewell, trusting 
that he will have enjoyed the variety of entertain- 
ment and appreciated the instructive matter pre- 
sented in the foregoing pages. We also trust that 
he will find them useful for future reference and 
companionable in solitary hours to come. Of his 
charity, we ask him to take them as they are and as 
they profess to be. Then, we modestly assure our- 
selves, he cannot be disappointed, and humbly believe 
that he will be abundantly satisfied. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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